Dance of the pyreflyes
by Chronodt
Summary: Naruto, after the battle at Wave, reflects on the events of the day, when something happens from the afterlife that would fully explain his role in the sealing. What is White Chakra? What are pyreflyes? Naruto/FFX minor Fusion. Whitemage/Summoner Naruto.
1. A voice from afar

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Summary: Naruto, after the battle at Wave, reflects on the events of the day, when something happens from the afterlife that would fully explain his role in the sealing. What is White Chakra? What are pyreflyes? Naruto/FFX minor Fusion

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 1: A voice from afar

by Chronodt

Naruto left Tazuna's home, still sore all over. Just this morning they defeated Zabuza and Haku, driving off the mercenary and freeing the land of Wave from that thieving backstabber Gato. He examined his own hand, that just a few hours ago was about to kill someone, however he stopped abruptly when he felt something wrong in it. His chakra felt.... strange, there was no other term that came to mind. There were lingering traces of the red chakra he used against Haku, but it was... hunted down by his own, somehow. Hunted down, surrounded and then dispersed.

"Weird", he exclaimed, dismissing it almost immediately. After all, for what he knew about chakra, it could very well be normal. He wasn't the dead last just on paper, after all.

Deciding to drown his own gloom with physical activity he decided to climb trees again. Even if he tied with the bastard just a couple days ago, he just had to show him off by saving him from a bad fall in front of Sakura-chan, damn him!

He ran to the tree, sticking his feet to the trunk just as he learned, but the tree exploded under his feet and was propelled away, just like the very first time he tried.

"How?", he asked himself, examining his feet. And again he felt those lingering traces of that red chakra and he realized it was obstructing his hard won control. Angry and unthinking, he molded a large amount of chakra and sent it to his feet, to try to purge that red annoyance away. He succeeded... a little too much, blasting away a good chunk of earth from under his feet and propelling himself a dozen meters off the ground. His fall was also much less than graceful, knocking his wind off, bringing stars in his vision and laboring to get his breath back. He sat down on the ground, waiting for his head to clear and promising himself to be much more careful in the future, when he noticed that the stars in his vision were not going away. Not only that, they were... combining somehow in a sort of multicolored small flame. It was really pretty to watch.

-_Naruto!_- he heard somewhere in his head. A female voice. An adult female voice with a hint of urgency.

"What? Who?" he jumped on his feet and looked around, kunai ready in his hand. He was still a little woozy, but he could stand.

-_Naruto, can you hear me?_- the voice sounded even more frantic, now. He became very nervous.

"WHO ARE YOU?" he yelled, panicking because the voice sounded really close and he couldn't pinpoint the direction.

-_Naruto, I hope you can hear me, even if I cannot. We are sending you a scroll with your inheritance and I have no more time. Copy all of it in an empty scroll as soon as you can because it will disappear in a few hours. We love you, honey...._-

As soon as the voice disappeared, the strange multicolored flame coalesced again and transformed in a medium sized sealed scroll, and dropped into the ground with a soft "splat".

"What the..." he exclaimed, surprised again. Especially by the 'love you' part. Just the old man dared to tell him he loved him, not even Iruka sensei. Well, he could understand Iruka sensei not telling him that.

Still wary, he approached the scroll cautiously and read the writing outside: "Uzumaki family scroll - basic 1"

His heart jumped in his throat reading that.

"Uzumaki family scroll?" he asked aloud and jumped to get the scroll, not even thinking about the possibility of falling into a trap. He grabbed the scroll and tried to open it, but failed. He examined the seal keeping it closed and remembered from a half forgotten lesson (probably he was just listening to facilitate his sleep) about blood seals, to protect family scrolls from outsiders. He bit into his thumb, wincing because in his haste he bit a lot more than was strictly necessary and swept a couple liters of blood (well... it felt like it, really!) on the seal.

And his eyes lit up, because from the very first words, it LOOKED genuine. He started avidly reading it, but then he remembered the little fact about it disappearing in a few hours. He realized he could never be able to remember all of it, especially because there were a lot of hard words and technical stuff about chakra that he didn't have any idea about, but all his stuff was still at Tazuna's.

Thinking quickly, he summoned a clone and sent him to gather an empty scroll and writing utensils from his pack. Good thing that it was Kakashi sensei that compiled the list of things to bring into a mission, else he would have used that space to pack a few more instant ramen cups and he would have been forced to borrow ink and brushes from someone. And they would have asked questions, questions he wasn't ready to answer.

If the scroll was telling the truth, those were HIS family jutsus. HIS! Something from his family, a proof that they existed somewhere, that someone could still be alive to send this scroll to him. Someone who could be happy that he existed, despite the fox, that would be happy with him becoming the Hokage...

Someone who could acknowledge him.

He continued reading the scroll, and became frustrated. It really was too complicated for him, but he didn't dare to ask even Sakura-chan. She would assume he stole it from Sasuke and would give it to him immediately, subdued by the will of the bastard into ignoring the fact that she truly loved Naruto even if she did not realize it yet. But she would realize it someday!

However, he would not give up. He would not give the scroll up, either, not even to Kakashi-sensei or the old man. This was the first step to becoming Hokage and be recognized as a human being from the village. After all, having a family would mean that he was a human, wasn't it?

The clone returned, slightly tired from running all the way from the house, and prepared to write. Naruto started dictating it, but not before creating a hundred clones as sentries. Nobody would listen in on his family jutsu!

Six hours later he finished copying the scroll. It was a lengthy process, especially because he didn't know the meaning of most kanji and had to copy them exactly as they were written, however he could get the most important thing: he had a bloodline. At least the scroll said so, but he couldn't understand what the scroll said about it, just that it was something about healing. Well, considering that he healed pretty fast it could be considered proof. "_Take that, Sasuke bastard!_" He literally had to restrain himself from yelling aloud from excitement (4 clones had to tie him down and gag him so the bastard would not hear him) and despite wanting to brag to Sakura about it, he would wait until he could read, understand and use what was in the scroll. After all, it would be even MORE impressive if he could show her, right?

He was about to close the original scroll when from its back fell a letter, addressed to Uzumaki Naruto. He jumped to it immediately and read:

_Dear Naruto, I'm sorry about how your life has been until now, and I still cannot forgive myself for having to leave you alone all this time. However, it could not be avoided, because even now, I am dead. My name is Uzumaki Kushina, mother of Uzumaki Naruto._

Naruto stopped reading abruptly. From... his mother? And... she was dead?

The little hope he had about meeting his long lost mother died then and there. He did not realize the strange wording of the "dead" part, though.

"At least I know she hadn't abandoned me. She even arranged for this to come to me." he said,

looking at the family scroll.

_I know that by now you are dying to know your father's name, but we asked the Third to hide it and letting you have my last name to protect you from his enemies._

"DAMN!" exclaimed Naruto.

_I can tell you that even by knowing my full name it won't be easy to find his name. Consider it a challenge to your information gathering skills._

Naruto smiled, even if he didn't have much interest in the less showy aspect of the ninja life. Just to get to know who his father was he was willing to rise to the challenge.

_However, for your protection, you'll have to keep my name for yourself. After all, if you have a chance to know your father by knowing it, your enemies may do it too._

Naruto nodded, thinking that his mother was really smart.

_Now, since I don't have much time, I'll have to give you the introductory information to fully utilize the scroll that came with this letter. Even if it's the very first scroll of the Uzumaki clan, it still relies on previous knowledge that would have been taught to you by me._

Naruto exhaled a relieved breath. "So that's why I couldn't understand most of it", forgetting that not only he couldn't understand most of the scroll, but couldn't read most of the kanji as well.

_To understand the scroll, you'll have to borrow from the Konoha Library these books: __Understanding Chakra__, __The Chakra Pathways__, __Basic guide to the elements__, __A basic guide to the human body for the dedicated ninja__, and the restricted book: __the Celestial Gates_

"Five more books!" cried Naruto, his resolve wavering, before he reminded himself that this would help him become Hokage. After all, enduring boredom made a great ninja, didn't it?

_I can tell you that getting the last book will be hard. Only jonin and above may borrow it, but I know that you will be able to get it somehow._

"A jonin only book... it must be awesome!" exclaimed Naruto, imagining all the incredible jutsu it must contain.

_Now we must come to the most critical point. In the scroll you'll read about our bloodline, the White Chakra, however you probably won't be able to access it until you put a lot of hard work into it._

"Eeh? Why?" cried Naruto, not caring that he was complaining to a letter.

_The reason stems from the day you were born. You have to know that the Dead Demon Consuming Seal the Fourth Hokage used to seal the demon fox into you, is the ultimate Uzumaki Demon Seal. It was designed with our bloodline in mind; if the Fourth used any child but you in the sealing, he or she would have died almost instantly and the fox would now be free._

Naruto was shocked. Soon the shock transformed into pride, however, because now he had THE answer that plagued him since he could remember: "Why me?". "Why they hate me?" became easier to accept after the traitor Mizuki spilled the beans about the fox, but then the question became "Why the Fourth chose me?".

And now he had an answer.

Konoha was saved by his family jutsu, and the only possible container able to live though it was Naruto himself.

He could understand now why the Fourth wanted him to be seen as the hero who saved the village. (even if they blatantly ignored that request)

Eager to know more, he continued reading.

_Our bloodline normally makes our chakra so attuned to life that it destroys youki on contact, purifying it. However the Dead Demon Consuming Seal redirects that ability toward the seal, to kill the imprisoned demon. While that seal is on you, your chakra is perfectly ordinary, as if you didn't possess our bloodline._

"STUPID FOX!" yelled Naruto. "Not only he kills everyone and probably my parents, but he also is stealing away my bloodline!"

_However, the seal has a failsafe built in it. When you are injured the seal will partially release its control and both youki and White Chakra would flow to the injury. While the youki does increase the damage to the area, your bloodline will both heal it and purify the youki. Unfortunately it means that it is a rather painful process. I hope you can see it as a pain endurance training, because it was inevitable._

Naruto sweatdropped. He never noticed that his injuries hurt him more than other people. After all it's hard to quantify pain to others. Another reason to hate the fox.

_The reason any other child would have died lies there: the seal forces your chakra and the demon's to mingle. Youki would easily infect the child and corrode his body, stopping the chakra that powers the seal and freeing the demon before the host died. With our bloodline the reverse happens: our White Chakra purifies the youki that is slowly released from the demon in a controlled way, and with the scroll's help you will be able to willingly force more of your chakra into the seal, slowly killing the beast. Another way is losing control of your emotions: when you are experiencing a strong anger, your instinct will take control of your bloodline from the seal and the youki would flood your body, being consumed at an incredible pace by your White Chakra that would work frantically to keep you alive. It is doubly dangerous because youki not only damages your body, but influence the human mind as well, making you feral, a berserker. And remember that even with its enhanced strength and speed, a high level jonin would use your almost mindless state to run circles around you and afterward, when you are calmed down, youki residual will linger for a couple days, temporarily worsening your chakra control._

Naruto nodded, having noticed it on his skin a few hours ago. He still had an evil grin at the thought of killing the damn fox with his own "hands" and in the mean time to be "rewarded" for it by having back his bloodline. The thought of having that task entrusted to him by the Fourth himself was making him so happy he had rivers of tears on his cheeks and his smile was threatening to split his face in half. To be trusted to do something of that magnitude eclipsed anything he could think of (except becoming Hokage himself, naturally)

He almost exploded right then and there from happiness, resisting the urge of parade through Wave screaming his joy to the winds only because he wanted to keep his secret.

It took him half an hour to calm himself down enough to continue reading.

_Unfortunately, I'm almost out of time. If you want to know more, you'll have to summon a pyrefly as explained in the scroll._

"Really?" he checked the scroll again. It must have been one of the unrecognizable kanji.

"Sigh... I'll have to study.." he cried in dismay.

_Farewell, my dear Naruto-chan. I hope you'll be happy from now on._

_With Love,_

_Uzumaki Kushina_

"Bye, mom...I love you too" said Naruto, before deciding that he wanted a copy of this letter, too.

A copy as faithful to the original as he could manage.

Since it was almost dinnertime (having skipped lunch in his excitement) he left to the clones this task, with the order of making a PERFECT copy of the letter, even if it took them all the night to do it.

Walking to Tazuna's house, now, there was another problem. The original scroll had a blood seal on it, and he copied it faithfully, but he had no idea on how to activate the seal on the copy. He mentally added to check out a beginning book on seals from the library, as first priority. He could not let this scroll end up in the hand of Sasuke or an enemy without at least that protection.

He summoned another clone to bring secretly both scrolls in his pack, while he ate with his team. Obviously as soon as he entered he was greeted by a screaming Sakura: "Where have you been, Naruto? Because you went away I had to guard Tazuna while they finished the bridge instead of looking at Sasuke-kun!"

"But.... but... Sakura-chan!"

"It was only right, after all! If it wasn't for you, Sasuke-kun would have won!"

"**Chaaa, right!**" thought Inner Sakura.

Naruto felt a stab in his heart... she was right, mostly. If he hadn't entered the mirrors maybe Sasuke wouldn't have become a pincushion, or at least not as much. But to assume so instantly that he had completely hampered Sasuke, instead of helping him...

Memories of himself and Sasuke fighting together to defeat Haku flooded his brain. Sasuke's sacrifice came to mind and he realized that he really has been as much an hindrance as a help. He tried to dismiss it as usual, by trying to think that without him and his awesome skills Sasuke would have been reduced to a pincushion even faster, but his previous roller coaster of emotions reading his mum's letter made impossible for him to delude himself as he usually did.

He had been dead weight in that fight before Sasuke "died".

He unthinkingly put himself in a death trap and forced his hated teammate to save him from death, even if Haku had been too softhearted to kill them.

His only help to Sasuke has been as additional targets for Haku to concentrate on while Sasuke did the hard work.

And he had to rely on the power leaked from the seal to defeat Haku, a power he didn't want to rely upon, because the fox would die soon, if not naturally, because HE would kill it. And he would learn his family jutsu to become a ninja worthy of the Fourth, who put his faith on his newborn self.

That would be his goal from now on.

Sakura continued her tirade, not even noticing that Naruto was no longer paying attention. Kakashi however did and even though he didn't know exactly what he was thinking, he could guess it from his body language and smiled inside.

Sakura, winded from her lecture, finally stopped when Sasuke came to the table to eat and she immediately tried to mother him, telling him of her boring day because of Naruto's laziness and asking for dates all in a single breath. Even Kakashi was impressed.

Upstairs, a clone finished packing the scrolls and transformed himself into a third scroll to guard them further against thieving Uchiha teammates. Better paranoid than scrolless.

Later in the night, a clone, bringing the letters from his mother, silently slipped them inside that same pack and left the room to dispel itself silently.


	2. A first step

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 2: A first step

by Chronodt

The voyage home was uneventful, if you discount the entire Wave country thanking them and almost throwing a festival in their honor. Even if they didn't learn of it, they even named the newly finished bridge after Naruto. Fortunately they wouldn't discover it for a long time for Kakashi's peace of mind.

On the last leg of the way home, Naruto was locked in a circle trying to convince himself that he HAD to read all those books to become Hokage; arguing that it was too boring to do it, then slipping away into thinking that those books and his scroll would let him kill the stupid fox. Years of habits were warring against ambition and, dared he say it, justice against the fox. He was so focused on that thought that he almost collided with Sakura when they stopped at the gate for identification.

As soon as they passed the gate, Kakashi turned toward the genin: "I'll report to the Hokage, but you have the next 2 days free because you did so well in the mission." and disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

Sasuke darkened at the thought of his performance against Haku, swearing to himself that he would not lose again, but he guessed that now, with his sharingan finally active, he would improve exponentially faster. He was sure that after a couple weeks of training with his bloodline, even an enemy like that boy would be insignificant to him. He would finally be able to catch up with that person and finally kill him. He ignored Sakura's plea for a date, as usual, and left to unpack and train. He had a brother to murder.

Sakura, dejected, left without a word.

Naruto, left alone at the gate, decided that he should secure the scroll. As the voice said, the original scroll and letter disappeared during the night. He actually remembered seeing them vanish in a shower of pretty colored lights, just like that flame he saw after he blew himself up. It was strange that he remembered, after all he was sleeping while it happened....

Ah, it wasn't important. Not as much as hiding the copy under a loose floorboard in his apartment, forgoing even a "welcome back" bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's for half an hour more than strictly necessary to ensure it was safe. He reflected on the fact that he really should place some more traps in his apartment, now that he had something truly irreplaceable in it. Prank traps were not enough anymore for the protection of his scroll.

He sighed and added "something about traps" to the list of the 5 books and "something about seals" that he wanted to check in the library. Well, about that he could ask Iruka sensei, too, without anyone suspecting anything.

Satisfied for the moment, he let his feet guide him automatically to the really used road to Ichiraku's ramen.

* * *

Ayame and Teuchi were really wonderful people, a great audience even to the most hated boy in Konoha. They laughed at the right moments, stayed focused in the most dramatic scenes and were even appreciative of the little embellishments he added to liven up the story. Uh... the fact that he saved Sasuke AND Kakashi single handedly from a horrible death wasn't that much of an exaggeration, right?

He was reaching the point where he was about to wipe away the mercenaries with over a thousand clones when Iruka arrived.

"Iruka sensei!" exclaimed Naruto, happy to see the chunin instructor.

"Hello, Naruto. How was your first c-rank mission?"

"Uh... it was hard, sensei. It.. well... the client lied." said Naruto, in a small voice. While he didn't mind embellish stories for Ichiraku, Iruka sensei preferred the truth. He learned very well THAT lesson during his stay in the academy.

"L-lied... in... how much he lied, Naruto?" asked a worried Iruka. Since the boy looked happy, he guessed the mission was a success, so he wasn't TOO worried. Nonetheless...

"There was a really rich person who hired missing ninja to kill him." Naruto confessed. He awaited the explosion any moment. Instead, Iruka became icily calm.

"What kind of ninja?"

"Uh... a couple chunin, the Demon brothers... and uh... MomochiZabuzaTheDemonOfTheHiddenMistAliasTheEyebrowlessFreakAndHisSidekick"

Iruka became very pale: "An A-rank missing nin???"

Naruto could only nod.

Teuchi took pity on the boy and told Iruka: "Naruto here was telling us how well he and his team did against them, Iruka-san."

Iruka sighed, and ruffled Naruto's hair. "I hope none of you were seriously injured."

"Sasuke and me were hit by a few senbon, but nothing a night's sleep couldn't fix" he said, downplaying a little their injuries. "Sakura-chan was completely unharmed"

"Then I guess it was a good experience for what a chunin or jonin usually go against in their missions." he said with a sad smile. "After all, with a higher rank there are both higher dangers and responsibilities."

Naruto nodded. Then he remembered what he was thinking before. He prepared himself to tell an almost-truth to Iruka, hoping he would forgive him, eventually.

"Iruka sensei... can you teach me more about traps? I... well... I need to protect my home a little more. Kakashi sensei gave me a couple scrolls that I cannot bring with me everywhere and my home may not be secure enough..."

Iruka nodded. He really felt a little sorry for Naruto's situation, but while as an academy student he could have been in trouble if he set up dangerous traps to catch thieves, as a genin he was allowed semi-sensitive materials, such as d or e-rank jutsu scrolls; not so valuable that a genin could not repay it back even with the meager pay of d-rank missions, but still as jutsu scroll they were restricted from civilian use and he was allowed harmful non-lethal traps to protect them.

Still, he didn't have that much free time....

"Naruto, I just have a couple hours in the evening free, usually, and I may need them for backlog paperwork or grading. But I can give you two evenings a week, starting tomorrow. However, you must promise me that you WILL give your maximum effort in it, or I'll stop."  
"Thank you, Iruka sensei! I promise you I will give everything I have! Believe it!" he said, grabbing reflexively his leaf forehead protector and hurrying home (after leaving the money for the ramen)

Once there, he reread his mother's letter, and tried to imagine her from her few words. He also remembered her challenge to find out his father's name. What should be its priority?

"Well.. first to protect the scroll and the letter.. so seals and traps" he mused aloud, trying to not think about how much hard and boring material would be required for it.

"I will have to... have to... ugh.. I cannot even think of it... go to the library...."

He rechecked the book list. The anatomy book sounded interesting, or at least useful. Next probably he should read that "Understanding Chakra". He really hurt when Sakura told him he was an idiot for knowing so little about it. The rest should wait until he read that one.

"And I should study the layout of the library to get that jonin book later, too. At least, I hope they have it."

But as he thought about it, the more likely it was that a restricted book would rather be in a restricted area, such as ANBU headquarters, the Hokage tower library or somewhere as secret as the book itself.

"I also need a higher level kanji dictionary. I'd better buy that." He checked his Gama-chan wallet and noted it was still pleasantly plump, even after 5 bowls of ramen. And he had yet to get his last mission's pay.

"Tomorrow it will be a LONG and BORING day." he said before changing into his pajama and going to sleep.

* * *

He looked at his enemy.

He was fat, balding and had a terrifying weapon in his hands. In the past he already experienced it many times, when he had to buy his academy schoolbooks.

That weapon was currently in use to clean the porch of his shop.

Yes, he had very bad memories of that broom. Surely it was lead-plated!

However, this time he had a secret weapon against it! One he didn't have last time he dared to confront its awesome damage potential.

Well... now he could henge. And he did so, entering as a random academy student, and restraining himself from making faces at the man while he selected and bought a medium and advanced kanji dictionary. After all, better safe then sorry, right?

After feeling overjoyed at outsmarting the evil shopkeeper, he decided to keep the transformation up for a while. He never got to try out his endurance with his new control after the tree climbing exercise, and it may be important in his next mission: to infiltrate Konoha library. In a standard ninja mission ranking, for anyone native of Konoha who wasn't Naruto would have rated it somewhere near the letter K. Enemy ninja probably would rate it a C since like Naruto guessed, there were no jutsu scroll or sensitive information in it. Naruto, instead, would rate a high B rank mission for it. The one time he tried to enter it, to borrow a schoolbook the evil Broom Shopkeeper wouldn't let him buy he had been sent away with extreme prejudice. And a hand on a kunai, ready to stab him. He didn't try again, until today.

He tried to remember everything Iruka and his previous sensei told him about espionage missions when he entered the building. Having never been inside and since nobody ever explained to him how a library exactly worked he nervously looked at a row of books, trying to look as if he was looking for a specific title while simultaneously trying to spy on the few people already inside the building. They say that adrenaline sometimes lets the body do incredible things if stressed enough, and he surely demonstrated it since he managed to keep under surveillance 7 different people without them noticing, an incredible feat for the clumsy overactive genin who lived by making himself seen his mission in life. He quickly realized that most people who were looking for specific books were looking at some strange cabinets in a corner then going with purpose toward a goal, finding their book with ease then going to read, while people who wanted something nebulous, such as his book on seals, simply searched for the right category then browsed the titles on display. He decided to find the seal book, as he decided yesterday, and went into the ninja section of the library.

He almost gaped, there were THOUSANDS of books here, divided into subcategories. Some of these titles WERE interesting, and he promised himself he would take a little time to read them. They would surely help him become Hokage!

He reached the "miscellaneous" ninja books, since there wasn't a section dedicated to seals; probably seals were too sensitive to be kept in an open library like this, but he found "An introduction to storage seals" that, even if it didn't look like what he wanted, it looked really useful. "Make your own exploding tags and surprise your neighbors" made him almost literally drool. He LOVED those little exploding tags but they weren't cheap, not at all!

Dismayed in not finding about blood seals, he took those 2 books and brought them into the reading room. Even if neither of them was what he needed, they were a treasure mine to Naruto, making leverage on his pranking instinct and sparking his imagination about seeding 200 exploding notes into a trap to punish sensei's lateness. He had to make heavy use of the medium kanji dictionary, but he no longer complained for its expense.

Taking copious notes from the books, he left 4 hours later when he felt the strain of the henge, and left before being discovered. After a quick lunch he tried to make his first exploding tag. 30 tries later he managed a successful one and 2 hours later he had 15 tags ready to be tested in a training area. He was surprised on how well they performed, almost like store bought ones and he thought that this branch of the ninja arts had definitely potential if results were as cool as these.

Leaving a clone to craft tags in his apartment, he returned to the library using the same disguise, took again those 2 books and continued reading them until evening. He returned to his apartment to get the tags his clone made in the last few hours. After all, Iruka may make him use them!

Leaving the clone to continue making tags, he left for the academy building.

"Naruto! Over here!" came the greeting from Iruka-sensei as soon as he approached the building. He saw Iruka-sensei in the practice area and joined him. He saw a few different traps already assembled.

"Since your grades in trap making as well as trap detection were horrible, I'll start from the beginning. Any questions?"

Naruto thought about it. It really was depressing to have to do those lesson again, but without a teacher out to ridicule him instead of teaching he may truly learn it this time!

Then he though that Iruka sensei may help him with seals, too, or at least praise him for it. It wasn't as if storage seals and exploding tags were restricted to genin.

"Can you check them, Iruka sensei? I made them this afternoon. I tried a couple of them and they worked well." Naruto passed the small paper slips to Iruka, who examined them with a surprised and (he hoped) impressed expression.

"These are good, Naruto. And I can see them getting better one after the other. I didn't know you were interested in seals. They are very useful in traps, you know, but at that level you should really ask your jonin sensei. It's his responsibility to teach you genin level skills and above. If you manage to pass my course with good grades, I'll make a joint request to Kakashi-san."  
"Really?" asked Naruto, overjoyed on the thought of finally having something he could beat Sasuke at. Not that he admitted that even to himself.

The next 2 hours were filled with the basics of trapping, and Naruto made incredible progress due to his extreme motivation. Iruka himself could not believe it. He managed to learn more in 2 hours than he did in half his last year at the academy. Was it all due to motivation?

Returning home, he saw another 50-pack of exploding tags ready to use, put them away and fell asleep, barely noticing the memories of himself making hundreds of tags, learning to make better and better ones. He still didn't notice it even the next day, when he repeated this day's events, making tags and finishing with physical and chakra training by climbing another tree while throwing kunai to a target.

* * *

The 2 days' reprieve from his team came to an end and he found himself again waiting for Kakashi-sensei.

Not wanting to be seen reading academy level books by his Sakura-chan he simply waited, after naturally asking her out and being rejected again. But instead of idly waiting he revised mentally the steps of making the explosive tag. He had yet to make a successful storage seal, they were much harder than the tags (which were instable by design), and required a much more firm hand. He realized his handwriting was horrible, due to very little practice in the academy (he he he) so he had to overcome that little handicap to do good seals. Nonetheless his tags were now solidly store level. It was a wonder they were so expensive if they were so easy to make, but it was probably the time needed to make a good amount of them that inflated the price, but he could take advantage of this... a little henge and he could sell it to a shop and make a little extra pocket money if he needed it.

2 hours of waiting and Kakashi-sensei finally appeared. They did their customary useless d-rank, Naruto got mauled by Sakura for asking her out and was ignored by the bastard... but he managed to not screw up anything. After a little team exercise, they were left free for the afternoon, where he practiced storage seals until he managed to make a working one. It could only hold something about the weight of an apple, but it was a start. This evening he had his second appointment with Iruka sensei, and got another 2 hours of trap instruction, much harder than before and much faster than 2 days ago. Evidently Iruka realized his awesomeness, too. He showed him his first successful storage seal and he complimented him for it! He was so giddy that he blurted out without even realizing it his need for a blood seal to lock his personal scrolls, and to his surprise, Iruka simply nodded and promised him to let him borrow a book on the argument for his next lesson in 3 days, provided he managed to perfect his storage seals in the meantime.

Naturally he worked on it almost day and night, both to make Iruka proud and for the protection of his scroll, that he had not dared to pull out of its hiding place since the first night and was waiting to be able to protect it at least with genin level traps and the blood seal.

His team meetings were ridiculous compared to Iruka sensei's instruction; the only things they did was team building exercises and a little sparring. Even the library was more useful. He managed to find a book in the ninja section about infiltration, especially on how to falsify documents. He needed to borrow the books listed in mom's letter, at least the 4 non restricted ones but the library would NEVER let the demon take them, and if they knew he was interested in them they would likely take them permanently off the bookshelves. Furthermore they were restricted to genin level and above, so he couldn't just henge into anyone and just ask for them. That meant either impersonating some other genin, that could lead him into an ocean of trouble even with the old man, or a completely new identity, with a forged ID, that he COULD get away by explaining his circumstances to the Hokage if he ever got caught, with just a token punishment, as long as he didn't use his counterfeit identity to get material he wasn't already entitled to as genin. The book suggested that in an environment where people were familiar to the shinobi, he should use a disguise as far as the original as possible, so no one would likely associate the two of them even if he was somehow betrayed by mannerism or ingrained habits. A timid black haired girl would be good for the disguise, but it would be hard to do, especially with his flamboyant personality. He even had to lay off the orange, he was too well known for it. Not too attractive or he would be hit on by guys... urgh better not think about it... leaf headband on her hips, since he always had it on the head, white and black dress, not too fancy, still to avoid male eye and naturally no whisker marks. Those were hard to get rid of, a result of youki in his system, he guessed. He hoped that by killing the fox they would finally go away.

It took a whole week to create the disguise using his Oiroke no Jutsu and a second one to learn a new set of mannerism for the girl, who Naruto named Akiko Iwasa, a genin in the reserve list with no listed jonin sensei, complete with a medical history of a few training accidents cured by a retired civilian doctor that moved away to the farmlands with his family. He was tempted to let the old man Hokage know about it, especially because he realized his identification would not hold against something more than a civilian level security like the library, to avoid being mistaken for an enemy ninja. But he realized that if he told the old man, he would tell Kakashi, who would tell Sakura and Sasuke just to tease him and he would never hear the end of it. He didn't even consider that the Hokage could give that knowledge to Kakashi as sensitive information or that Kakashi could be trusted to not tell it to the rest of the team. Sometimes the fear of public humiliation is worse than the truth and he had been betrayed once by a teacher, so he would not give ammunition to someone he wasn't sure didn't hate him. Sure, Kakashi-sensei didn't SEEM to hate him, but neither did Mizuki and the way he insisted on teamwork while neglecting their personal training showed that he didn't care about them as individuals, but just as his soldiers. That or he was so incredibly lazy that made Shikamaru look like an overactive jumping monkey. He just hoped on the lazy theory.

Admiring his new genin library card, "Akiko" brought home the first of the five required books: Understanding Chakra_. _He realized that mom's letter may have given that order of books on purpose, so even if the anatomy book was inviting, he was now fascinated as well from Chakra, after having witnessed its versatility in seals. Reverting from the henge away from prying eyes, he returned to his apartment and moved away the book on seals that Iruka lent to him, just like promised: An introduction to seals, a genin to chunin level introductory book on the basics of sealing. Thanks to the book, he now knew why the exploding tags were so much easier to do than the storage seals: the former were e-rank and the latter was a c-rank seal, and that would mean he jumped from a difficulty rated around the level of an average academy student to a high genin one. Excited from the prospect of finally making way into understanding his family legacy he took both the dictionaries and the new book and began reading.


	3. Revelations

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 3: Revelations

by Chronodt

Sakura was worried. His undesired teammate was really strange lately. A week ago he started bringing books to the team meetings and began to read while they waited for Kakashi sensei. She was glad for the reprieve: if Naruto was reading he wasn't ogling her or pestering her for dates, or worse, making Sasuke-kun think that she may be even remotely interested in that baka. Even now she asked herself if that idiot did graduate just to spite her and get in her way, getting attention from her Sasuke-kun, and... even the thought of that sparkled her rage anew... stealing his precious first kiss, even if accidentally. "**He must die!**" raged Inner Sakura following that thought.

She again admired Sasuke, her hands coyly under her chin, making loving eyes on the dark haired youth, hoping against hope that he finally realized his feelings for her and got away from his shyness to reciprocate her feelings.

Two hours and a half later, Sasuke still hadn't looked at her, Naruto was still immersed in his books and her arms were hurting from her prolonged stay in that uncomfortable position.

"Yo!" hailed Kakashi, as usual appearing in a swirl of leaves,  
"YOU ARE LATE!" screamed Sakura, as usual, too.

"Maaa, maaa, you see.."

"DON'T EVEN START LYING!" interrupted Sakura, tired of hearing the same old lies.

Kakashi seemed to fall into a deep depression...

They left to get another D-rank mission. Sakura thought that Sasuke's skill were being wasted by doing menial chores, that was Naruto's job, but not even her could do anything about it. After such an intensive mission step-up in rank (for their level) there was a mandatory period of low stress missions, unless it was wartime. But if those were low stress missions in the Lord Hokage's mind, she couldn't fathom what high stress missions were. That damn cat was more slippery than a soaped and buttered eel, those damn brats were a nightmare and those dogs were bigger than her. She sometimes really wished to be as cool as her Sasuke-kun, unflinching despite everything. But at least she wasn't as much dead weight as the dead last Naruto. From what she could see during the sparring matches they sometimes did after the missions, he hadn't progressed at all since Wave, at least not in comparison with his Sasuke-kun. His sharingan red eyes were soooo handsome and powerful, he creamed Naruto in even less time than usual in every match he used them. Inner Sakura completely agreed with her, Naruto was a lazy good-for-nothing, all he had for himself was an incredible stamina, but his lameness precluded his use even as a shield. Despite that, he still hadn't learned that and he pestered her continuously for dates and disturbed his Sasuke-kun. She'd better start working out a way to surreptitiously ask Kakashi sensei to pawn him off to some other team and get someone useful that could work with them. And she obviously meant a boy that wouldn't pester her with dates and didn't annoy Sasuke-kun just by existing.

Thinking about his graduating schoolmates, she though that only Aburame Shino would fit the bill. He was silent, strong and usually minded his own business. Swapping Naruto for Shino would both mean get rid of Naruto and send him to the dogs, almost literally since Shino's team is composed of Hyuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. And she would gain a much better teammate from it.

She decided.

She would start looking into genin team regulations to see if she could manage to swap those two and see if she could arrange it somehow without bringing attention to herself.

She really hoped the team meeting finished fast, now, she had a library to get to!

* * *

Naruto looked up from the chakra book with a note of satisfaction. High on boring theoreticals, he still forced himself not only into reading the material, but in actually understand them, asking questions to Iruka sensei when a passage was unclear and realizing how many holes were being filled in his academic education by that combined effort. In the book were also numerous simple chakra control exercises, some like little games obviously thought out to teach to young children, but he mastered them all anyway. He now knew how chakra was produced, how to efficiently mold it (he had to correct a couple bad habits even there) how using handseals was an incredibly efficient way of rapid molding chakra, but not an indispensable one when only two or three seals were required: in fact most academic jutsu can be used even by genin level ninja without handseals with enough practice and he wanted to be able to do it. He learned of the sharingan and the byakugan, especially the sharingan's ability to both see chakra and memorize handseals, making it dangerous to do them before Sasuke, if he wanted to keep family jutsu safe from him. And Kakashi sensei, too, but he usually used the forehead protector to keep it covered so it wasn't as much an issue with him.

He also learned of the possibility of shape and nature manipulation of chakra, but both were jonin level skills and not included in the book. He would re-read it a couple times and then "Akiko" would bring it back to the library, but now he returned to work on seals. He had a workable model of the blood seal and wanted to test it, and then compare it to the unactivated one on the copy he made in the likeness of the original one. His own blood opened it fine, he already checked. But now he had to find a "donor" to try to open it. He though about Iruka, but he would wait the 2 days before the next lesson to ask him. And he had an idea about it...

* * *

It has been too easy, really.

He even thought about infiltrating the Konoha hospital as a nurse or something just to make it harder, but didn't want to harm someone by accident if he was asked to heal someone or assist a medic-nin.

He never thought it would be SO easy to find a pervert in this village, but considering Kakashi sensei's behavior it wasn't that hard to believe. He simply had to walk to the hot springs and use his Oiroke no Jutsu before an old man with a kabuki make-up who was peeping on the women's side while giggling like a schoolgirl. He fountained so much blood that he drenched the scroll in it and still didn't open. The seal was a success, a pervert has been punished and in heaven (figuratively and almost literally) and he could finally complete the protection of his scroll.

A successful day, after all.

* * *

"Damn brat" said Jiraya, waking up later in a hospital bed. But even so this event inspired him into writing: "_Gerard was waiting in the hot water for his lovely Helen, when suddenly he felt something...._"

* * *

"Akiko" entered the library to return the book, 2 days later. He activated the blood seal in the family scroll with only a couple minute imperfection to correct, made more because of ignorance of seals and the order of writing them than bad handwriting. He also rigged his apartment with the deadliest traps he was legally allowed to and started reading the family scroll with the help of the dictionaries. There were numerous references to the chakra circulatory system in the first quarter of it so "she" was going to the counter to request the second book in his mother's list: "The Chakra Pathways". "she" had to struggle hard to keep his cover when "she" met Sakura in the reading room, reading a large tome. Deciding that it would be too hard to keep in character before Sakura, "she" checked out the book and left to return home. This book was much easier to understand, because it had a lot of diagrams with the names of the various joints, channels and such. With the help of this book, he understood most of the first half of his family scroll and finally he could learn something from it!

Apparently, this scroll was an introductory level to the family art, called White Jutsu. By using his bloodline ability (STUPID FOX AGAIN) he could not only heal himself and others, but also summon something called a "pyrefly" or rather a swarm of them for the higher jutsu. About the pyreflyes apparently they are some kind of non-sentient energy beings that simultaneously exist both here and somewhere called the Farplane, that sounded like some sort of afterlife. The process wasn't clear on how to summon more than one... but since there were references to "gates" or something like that, he guessed they were explained in the jonin book, "the Celestial Gates"

Apparently those … things... beings... whatever were symbiont with chakra: wherever there was chakra there were pyreflyes, but only the White Chakra could make them visible to the naked eye. He reread the instructions to learn how to summon one of those pyreflyes and looked simple enough, even if a bit gruesome.

Even so, at least he would eat well this evening.

He left Konoha to go in the woods just outside the walls. There he found a torrent and fished for a while, until he caught a fish. Leaving a clone to get a few more to put in a bucket he neared the fire and proceeded with the first step. His chakra due to the fox was completely ordinary, but the instruction required him to coat the still living fish with White Chakra, so, to summon it, he cut his own palm with a kunai, and waited for his wound to close. As soon as it did, he felt the red chakra being consumed, and as it disappeared completely he pushed all the remaining White Chakra in the fish before it dispersed. Luckily, the fish was small enough. Steeling his stomach, he cut off the head of the fish, killing it instantly, and then waited. The scroll said that the White Chakra would allow him to "feel" the separation of the soul from the body and he had to "follow" it. The scroll said that the "direction" souls travel to go to the Farplane is so completely alien to normal human experience that it was considered impossible to manage to follow it in the first try, or the second, or the tenth.

About 5 minutes later, he felt it, the soul leaving the body and tried to follow, but as the scroll said, he couldn't. It was... as if he was trying to move sideway in Kakashi's "road of life". If he had an inkling of higher level math he could have guessed that it was a sort of fourth dimension.

After he lost the trail, he simply cleaned the fish to eat it later.

Twenty fishes later he managed to get a grip on that "fake" direction. Not enough to follow the soul, but enough that it didn't feel so alien anymore that his mind couldn't comprehend it.

"This is really hard, it must be an awesome technique!" said Naruto, eating the cooked fish.

He reread the scroll to get a few more hints. Apparently after death, the soul of a dead being left through something called the "Death Gate" along with its chakra. Using the White Chakra as bridge, he would touch the Farplane barrier and allow entry to a few Pyreflyes. The more White Chakra used the more they would come forth.

"After that... I really have no idea what to do after that, since the next step of the technique requires at least knowing about those Gates" he said aloud, while quenching the fire with his canteen.

He tried to figure out what use was this part of the technique and read a few paragraphs ahead. Fortunately his knowledge of kanji improved tremendously after reading all those books and he somehow understood that he could use those pyreflyes to congregate into something akin to a solid bunshin of powerful creatures of the Farplane. A clone that wouldn't disappear with a single hit.

And better yet, without a single handseal.

"Cool!" he exclaimed, happy beyond measure.

* * *

"I have nominated you to the chunin exams. These are the forms." said Kakashi, with an eye-smile. Naruto thought this could be the FIRST true reason for lateness he ever heard from his sensei. But even then it was unlikely he had been held for FOUR hours just to get 3 pieces of paper. Sakura-chan appeared to think the same thing, but didn't comment about it. She looked really worried.

The bastard, instead, just like him, was really happy about the news. No, happy wasn't the right word... he looked... feral.

"You are free to think about it today. If you wish to participate, go to room 302 in the academy building tomorrow morning at 9:00." he then disappeared.

Naruto left, to find Iruka sensei and tell him of the good news, and found him in the classroom, just after lessons.

"Naruto..." started Iruka, nodding toward the form in his hands. "... are you sure you want to do it? You could die, you know.."

"I'm sure, Iruka sensei." said Naruto somberly.

"Well, at least considering your progress in our lessons, at least I am sure that your trap making and sealing skills are at a solid genin level, and while Sakura is still better than you in trapping, neither of your teammates know about seals and its application in trap making. I have talked with Kakashi, too, after he nominated your team." Iruka looked a little downtrodden after that. "He didn't look that interested in your progress, and I felt ashamed for him, really."

Naruto, too, felt a little down after hearing that his own jonin sensei was ignoring him. Was he so incompetent his jonin sensei didn't think he could learn anything worthwhile?

"Despite him, Naruto, I am proud of your incredible progress. However there is no more I am allowed to teach you on traps without your jonin sensei's permission. We'll have to chose another area you are behind, and I fear it will have to wait until the end of the exams. I would suggest genjutsu detection and dispel, especially since you did all those chakra control exercises."

"Thank you, Iruka sensei! You are really the best!" cried Naruto, leaving a contented Iruka behind.

* * *

Naruto ran all the way to the torrent and returned to his fishing spot, to resume his Pyrefly summoning training. It was a pain filled process (after all he had to stab his hand to do it) but on the fifth fish he managed to track down that slippery soul for a couple seconds when he suddenly felt himself drenched head to feet in water. He opened his eyes, expecting a prank or an attack, but he was perfectly dry, and alone. Completely alone. A small puff of smoke showed the place where his clone just slipped and fell into the river.

"How..."

Long rusted gears started to creak in Naruto's mind while he tried to process what actually happened. He tried to put together a logical explanation, and the only one he could come up with was so incredible and as well so incredibly awesome that he couldn't believe it. But searching back into his memories that theory gained more and more credit.

With trembling hands he performed the seal and summoned a clone. He immediately went into the woods, recovering the fishing pole and hiding it. And when he dispersed Naruto realized his conclusion was correct.

As soon as a Shadow Clone dispersed, his collected information came back to him.

It really rocked his world, thinking of all the books he could read while he trained, the potential for infiltration and espionage missions.

He never realized what a jackpot he picked up from the Scroll of Seals until now.

He could expand Akiko's cover by having her seen in public, buying groceries, making acquaintances without losing his training time.

He could spy the other genin to see how they train and copy the best ideas (not their techniques, there are already two copycats in his team)

He could play a bit with Konohamaru and his friends, whom he neglected a bit in favor of his training these days. He had a whole childhood to make up for, after all!

And with this, his worth to the team multiplied a thousand fold as a scout. Beat that, bastard!

With a face-splitting grin, he summoned 20 clones. Since to perform the summoning training he needed to hurt himself, only the original could perform it, but he sent the others to fish, to the library, to Konohamaru and to shop as Akiko like he thought just moments ago. And to a group of 5 clones he ordered to search the foreign genin under henge to scout out the competition.

He really was a little ashamed in not noticing this sooner: he could have done TONS of training in time for the exam! But he would still pass them. They will not stop Uzumaki Naruto from becoming Hokage!

With renewed energy he cleaned the fish, took the next one from the bucket and continued his training.

* * *

That night, Naruto was ecstatic. He still was a long way from reaching the Farplane from that damned fish, but his clones collected a ton of useful information. He saw all the other rookie genin teams, and team 8 was still training. They were good, had a splendid teamwork, light years above theirs, each of them individually was better than him (and obviously better than Sakura) and had awesome clan jutsu. From what he discovered about the Aburame clan, he guessed Shino could easily beat Sasuke, too, unless Shino greatly underestimated the bastard's fire jutsu. Team 10 was lazing about in a restaurant, so he learned very little about them. He also scouted a few foreign teams, but none actually trained where he could see it undetected. Pity.

Another Konoha genin team... he shivered at the memory. Green spandex, living eyebrows and a sunset genjutsu was all he could remember before the clone dispersed himself from the trauma. However he saw that eyebrows kid train like mad before that traumatic experience. If they encountered that boy they would better avoid him.

Konohamaru and his two friends Udon and Moegi were ecstatic to have him for an entire afternoon playing ninja. He had to be careful of not being hit, but it was good reflex training even if they were just academy students.

Akiko borrowed both "Basic guide to the elements" and "A basic guide to the human body for the dedicated ninja" and two clones read it from front to cover twice. The anatomy book would need a few more rereads to remember all those hard names of all those body parts in a human body, but the guide to the elements was a really basic book, which only explained the relation of the five elements and their good and bad points. It also touched briefly about the bloodline elements, like wood and ice, being a combination of two different elements and with different strength and weaknesses than their components. He planned to send Akiko tomorrow to buy a chakra card to see his own elemental affinity. And while he was at it, he could try the same with his White Chakra and the fox youki for curiosity's sake. Even if elemental chakra conversion training was a jonin level skill, knowing his element would mean knowing which elemental jutsu class he would learn the easiest.

* * *

He checked himself on the mirror. His alarm clock read 8:30 and he was finishing storing food, weapons and tools into scrolls. He stored also books on edible plants and animals since he hadn't had time to study it; bandages, splints and mobile casts filched from the hospital. About 400 exploding tag, 10 soldier and 10 blood replenishing pills, exchanged by Akiko, naturally, for about 600 of his best exploding tags. Clone labor was really useful. He contemplated buying a weapon, too, but using it while completely unskilled in its use was probably worse than being unarmed. Kunai and shuriken would have to suffice. He added a few extra empty scrolls and writing instruments to write seals with as an afterthought.

He left his home ready to take on the world!


	4. The chunin exam: first test

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 4: The chunin exam: first test

by Chronodt

Team 7 arrived at the academy building 20 minutes before the designated time. Naruto decided to not embarrass himself this time, at least not before foreign ninja. After all, he can always ask Sakura out as soon as they finish the test, and she will be surely more agreeable to it after they pass!

Unfortunately, Sakura-chan still tried to woo the bastard. At least he didn't make a scene like Sakura-chan would have done if he tried to ask her out. If something must be said for the bastard, is that he treasures his public image. As a dark brooder sociopath, but an image nonetheless. "_Ah, well. Sakura-chan will soon realize that the bastard is probably completely uninterested in her"_ thought Naruto, entering the building. Going to the second floor they saw a lot of genin crowding a door. The doorplate read 302.

"_I may be lame at genjutsu, but even I noticed we are just on the second floor. But maybe we of the leaf have an unfair advantage, I know this building inside out, for all my pranks and years in these classrooms!"_

Naruto didn't put a lot of thought to the little scene unfolding before his eyes with Sakura-chan and the bastard because he saw the same kid who almost mentally scarred him yesterday. Trying to remove THAT image again from his memory, he followed his team upstairs. However Fuzzy Eyebrows, whose true name was Rock Lee continued to haunt his memories by following them. Luckily he wanted the Uchiha. He could keep him, too. With a nice ribbon to it! As long as he didn't hug that other guy again!

_When Fuzzy Eyebrows then blew a kiss toward Sakura I really pitied her, even if she put him down even more harshly that she does me (without the bodily harm, though)_

Even then, Naruto watched closely the match between Lee and the bastard, and was satisfied that his first impression of the kid was correct. Fuzzy Eyebrows was a Taijutsu wizard and could wipe the floor of all three of them even put together by playing to his strength. Not a good thought, that.

Then the nightmare returned.

Gai, that was the name of Super Fuzzy Eyebrows, the other half of the Nightmarish Spandex Duo, appeared just in time to save the bastard's neck. They had the weirdest mentor/pupil relationship he ever thought possible. Sasuke and Sakura were aghast at the image, and for the first time since Wave even Naruto thought of his black haired teammate with pity. Seeing that scene for the second time was a little less horrifying than the first, and he had had the option of virtual suicide to save his sanity.

Still of common silent accord, the best teamwork they EVER demonstrated, each of them proceeded with their own method of memory suppression and agreed to never speak of it to anyone for as long as they lived.

* * *

After passing Kakashi sensei, team 7 entered the exam room, just to be ambushed...

"Sasuke-kuuun!" yelled a girl's voice, throwing herself at the target of her affection. "I missed you!"

"Ino-pig! Get off Sasuke-kun!" replied Sakura, enraged.

Naruto ignored the sideshow, wishing the bastard would finally chose Ino or any other fangirl so that Sakura could be free to date him.

"So you too have been entered here... so troublesome.." said the lazy Shikamaru. Chouji, beside him, was eating a pack of chips.

Naruto looked for a moment at Shikamaru. Naruto knew the Nara was very smart. Much more than anyone he knew, actually, and if he had any idea...

"Shikamaru? Have you any idea about the exam?" asked Naruto.

Shikamaru looked around for a bit: "Considering the layout and the room we are in, I would say it's a written exam of some kind..."

Naruto froze.

"_A w-w-written exam??????"_

Naruto's brain went on an overdrive. His mind furiously trying to find a way around it.

"_No choice.. I'll have to cheat. I can use the Shadow Clones, but first I must test something out."_

He slipped away silently as soon as Shikamaru's attention was diverted by the arrival of team 8. He created a clone to hear anything they would tell each other and fled to the bathroom. He created two new clones: one of them with the order of thinking a number, then disperse itself. As soon as it did he received its memory of the number "14". The other clone too, replied that same number aloud.

"_I'm lucky, the memory share works towards other clones, too!"_

He immediately summoned 30 clones, which transformed into random people and ran towards the library. One of them transformed itself into a pin. The original quickly put it on in a place where it could see a paper before it. Returning toward the test room, he slipped back inside during the attack of the sound genin and replaced the clone just as the proctors entered the room.

* * *

Looking at the questions, Naruto thanked every divinity he ever heard of for Shikamaru's brain. Without his deduction he would be panicking right now.

"_These questions are impossible! How can they expect us to be able to get them right?"_

After about 5 minutes, he covered his chest around the pin to hide the small puff of smoke of his pin-clone dispersing, and not so casually giving the questions it memorized to his clones in the library to start their research.

"_The proctors didn't seem to have noticed, so far it's good. Now it's the library guys' turn."_

He tried to look thoughtful, and looked again at the blackboard. "_Those rules are a little fishy... Iruka sensei would throw me out if he caught me cheating, not just a 2 point reduction. So they WANT us to cheat. Thanks again, Shika. I'll buy you ramen as soon as I can."_

It took about 20 minutes for the first library clone to disperse. He learned that the clones divided themselves into 9 groups of 3, each group to research a single question, with the remaining 2 to supervise and double check the answers.

At the end of the 45 minutes, Naruto managed to get only 6 of the 9 answers, but it would be plenty to pass, considering who his teammates were.

A few minutes later, Morino Ibiki, the head examiner spoke up: "Now it's time for the tenth question, but before hearing it, there are a couple extra rules about it."

Murmuring was heard among the room.

"The first is a desperation rule... You'll have to decide whether or not to answer this question."

A sand girl jumped out asking: "What do you mean, decide to whether answer or not? What would happen if we don't?"

"Simple" said Ibiki with a stony face, "Your points will immediately drop to zero, and you'll fail, along with your team."

A couple guys then angrily asked: "So what is the point of asking? We'll certainly want to answer it!"

"Ah, but there is the other rule to keep in consideration..."

This time no one interrupted.

"If you decide to try to answer the tenth question and fail, you'll lose the right to ever participate in another chunin selection exam!"

"How can there be such an absurd rule? There are people here who took more than an exam!" roared Kiba.

With a sinister laugh, the head proctor calmly said: "You have been unlucky. This year I make the rules! But I'm giving you the possibility of retiring and return the next time! Those who don't have the gut to answer the question can try in six months in the next exam, or even next year."

Naruto was enraged. Banned from the chunin exams for life? Is he out of his mind?

Sakura, meanwhile, was smirking. Since she had just spent a week reading and rereading rules and regulations she knew it was a bluff. An incredibly and artful bluff, very convincing, too. He must be a professional. She looked toward Sasuke and she saw him completely determined and ready for anything. He certainly would not drop out. She then looked at Naruto. She really thought he would have panicked during the whole exam, but every time she looked at him he was relaxed. She caught him even purposefully writing in his paper. Even if she had no idea how, she was sure Naruto had managed to cheat without being caught: there was absolutely no way that empty head could solve any of these questions by himself! And with his pigheadedness, he would not drop out either. This first test was in their pocket.

Ibiki continued to put pressure after pressure on the assembled genin. Naruto was still incensed, but restrained himself. It would be a waste to get himself expelled after all that hard work cheating! He even stopped Hinata, who was sitting right beside him, from giving up by looking in her eyes and letting her see his determination. She blushed from head to neck, but she managed to not faint. And not so casually forgot everything about retiring.

After about 15 minutes and a sea of dropouts, Ibiki shocked most of the remaining genin by telling them that they passed the first test, explaining how information sometimes may be more valuable than a life, and that a squad leader had to have a strong decision making ability. At that point, a crazy girl threw himself into the room, crashing the window, hanging a poster with her name with kunai thrown to the ceiling and presented herself as Mitarashi Anko, second examiner.

The first thing Sakura thought seeing her was that she was strongly reminded of Naruto...


	5. The chunin exam: second test

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 5: The chunin exam: second test

by Chronodt

The hyper examiner led the genin through Konoha, outside the walls and finally to a forest enclosed in a high fence with a lot of closed gates to bar easy access. Or probably escape of whatever was inside, due to the examiner's welcome speech presenting it as the "Forest of Death". Naruto tried to pay attention to the scary examiner lady, really tried, but behind him, there was someone that.... felt somewhat wrong, but he had absolutely no idea how or why. He only knew that this insight came to him through those minute amounts of White Chakra that still lingered after yesterday's training with the fish. He wished again for the death of that stupid fox, so he could explore his heritage as it deserved. His distraction, however, cost him, because the examiner singled him out and threw a kunai, grazing his cheek and then creepily licking his blood, while telling him that guys like him were the first to die. And the guy who gave him the "wrongness vibes" held out her kunai with his TONGUE! A honest-to-god meter-long tongue! If that didn't deserve the freak waves he felt from the genin nothing did!

Still dazed, he accepted the form to sign and went with his teammates to collect their scroll.

"I'll keep it" said Sasuke, pocketing their Heaven scroll while they walked toward the gate number 12. While they were alone, with just a chunin examiner to bar the gate until the prescribed time, Sakura turned to Naruto:

"How did you cheat in the written exam? I know those questions were above you, but I've seen you write." Sasuke paid attention, too. After all, he too was curious about it.

"Yesterday I discovered a feature of the Shadow Clone Jutsu that I had never noticed before." started Naruto. "When a Shadow clone vanishes, whatever it learned gets back to the original. Not only that, just before the test I verified that the information goes to all the other still existing clones, too!"

"How could you not know, dobe? Didn't you read the Forbidden Scroll to learn it?" asked Sasuke, envious of the fact that even for a little he has been allowed to read such a collection of powerful jutsu.

"Uh.. I didn't have that much time to read it... " he said, trying to cover the fact that at the time he couldn't read most of the kanji making up the finer explanations "I thought I had very little time so I just read how to perform it and practiced. I think Kakashi sensei assumed I read it too, because he never told me about it and before Wave I only used that technique in battle."

Sakura at that point asked: "And after Wave?"

Naruto sighed and pulled out his explosive tags and scrolls. Even if it pained to share the result of his hard work with the bastard, his survival in this exam relied too much on teamwork.

"I found a couple books on sealing and I asked Iruka sensei for help. I used clones as 'additional manpower' to make a few hundreds of exploding tags while I trained. I made about a thousand of these babies, but I swapped most of them at a ninja supply store for these." he distributed 3 soldier pills and 3 blood replenishing pills to each of his teammates, as well as about a hundred tags.

"In this scroll", pointing the side of his backpack, "I have sealed a few first aid material: bandages, mobile casts and a couple generic use medicines. I had very little of it, but I thought it could be handy. This other scroll, instead has a few camping supplies. No tent, unfortunately, it's too heavy and bulky for the current level of my storage seals, but I have taken my bedsheets to build a makeshift one if needed. This last one has a few dozen of my extra kunai to build traps with. They are not blood-coded, just use a drip of chakra on the seal and if will release the content."

Sakura was actually impressed, but tried to not show it, else the blond start asking for dates. Sasuke instead was glad that for once the dobe was not being dead weight, actually learned something that could be of use to him but that he wouldn't personally bother with and if what he said about the clones was true then he could use him to scout ahead, avoid traps and ambushes and conserve chakra for worthy fights.

Sakura then asked: "About the first exam...?" trying to return to the original topic.

"Ah, yes. I asked Shikamaru what he thought the first exam would be and he correctly guessed it being a paper test. Since I know I suck at them, I … planned on cheating from the beginning!" Sakura palmed her face. Of all the things...Naruto managed to do exactly what the examiners wanted him to just because he already knew he would fail ANY kind of paper test!

"I created a couple dozen of clones, had one henge into a pin that I fixed on my clothes, sent the others henged as random people to the library and awaited the test. After a few minutes to await for my pin clone to memorize the question, I hid it and let it disperse covering the smoke and noise. Since it would have been the only sign of me cheating in the whole exam, it was worth the eventual 2 points, but none of the proctors wrote anything around that moment, so I guess it went unnoticed."

"And at the library your clones got the question, but how did you get the answers? Surely you couldn't ask the people in there!" asked Sakura.

"A Shadow Clone is a really good copy of me, Sakura-chan. It copies my memories, mind and personality. In practice I had 3 copies of me to each question, giving me something like 2 hours to get each answer right, with complete access to research material. Even then, I only got 6 of them, they were really hard!"

Sakura again was impressed with the fact that he even MANAGED to get one of those questions in 2 hours, consulting materials or not. She clearly underestimated (a little) his intelligence.

Sasuke instead was forming a new plan for this exam. With the dobe able to create an army of cannon fodder, he could be free to challenge the good fighters to prove himself. He pocketed the exploding tags after a brief check, and he noted that they looked good. He was no expert on seals, but having seen hundreds of these tags in his training he knew how to distinguish a good one from a failure or a dud. All of these were rather good, no wonder the shopkeeper has been willing to trade them for the pills. The dobe was becoming really interesting. Perhaps, unlike the fangirl, he could be eventually trained to become a worthy rival to push himself to an even higher level. He suppressed a sigh, since it would have to wait until the end of the exam. He could still hope the last part consisted in individual matches, though.

"Alright, change of plans. Naruto, you said you learned seals? Do you have a spare scroll?"

Naruto took out his writing implements and a blank scroll. Sasuke immediately started to copy the appearance of the Heaven scroll in the empty one and gave the completed fake one to Sakura, checking it with the help of his sharingan. It was a perfect copy, if you cannot see chakra, naturally.

Naruto smirked, thinking of it as the first prank he had ever seen performed by the Uchiha.

"Pass it here, Sakura. I have a little addition in mind." said Naruto, unsealing about 40 kunai from his scrolls. "Don't ruin it, dobe" said Sasuke, but he wasn't too worried.

Naruto made a face to Sasuke, but as soon as he received the scroll, he became serious and began writing a complex array of seals on the interior of the fake Heaven scroll, then a small quick one on each of the 40 kunai. Finally he placed them over the scroll seal,then gathered a little bit of chakra in a precise order in the seal and the multipurpose ninja knives vanished in a small cloud of smoke.

"Now it's a little surprise packet. It primes like an explosive tag, even when closed, and it will explode exactly 4 seconds later, throwing all 40 kunai in all directions for added ranged damage. It's a C-rank trap seal" and he gave Sakura the scroll back. "It will make no fire or smoke when active, so be careful. And remember: if we are ever pressed to release a scroll, give them that." he said to Sakura with a smirk. Sakura nodded and Sasuke smirked.

Sasuke then turned to Naruto: "Can we seal away our scroll?" looking at his storage scrolls.

Naruto tiredly shook his head: "No, it's above my level to seal something that itself contains seals and we cannot open it to verify if there are any inside." Sasuke accepted it and pocketed the true Heaven scroll.

"Considering the words of the examiner, it's likely" said Sasuke, not bothering to tell them that he could clearly see the chakra in the original scroll with his sharingan. He then looked at the clock. Less than a minute to the start. "Prepare yourselves, it's time. Naruto, as soon as we get in I want a scouting perimeter. As many as you can spare from the fighting and at least a hundred meters ahead of us at any time, preferably henged into the three of us. Sakura, your first priority is checking the environment for any genjutsu. Leave the direct fighting to Naruto and me and pester them with traps or ranged weapon. Make use of the tags, too, we have more than enough to last all 5 days."

Sasuke felt satisfied that his teammates nodded and obeyed his orders, while the chunin at the gate opened it and let them inside.

* * *

Naruto raised his hand abruptly. "There is a single rain-nin that is following one of the decoy squads, in that direction.", he pointed on their left, "I've not seen his teammates. I have no idea if he has the scroll or not."

Sasuke nodded. "Let's get him, we can trade him for the scroll if he hasn't one." Sakura was a little apprehensive at fighting another ninja, but it was imperative to get that second scroll or they would fail. She hardened her resolve and nodded, then they followed Naruto toward the decoys.

The fake group stopped, to apparently discuss how to reach the tower, while the true team 7 positioned to do a counter-ambush to the lone nin. As Naruto said they couldn't see his scroll, but he had plenty of covered area to hide it. Activating his sharingan, Sasuke threw a score of shuriken-delivered wires to tie the ninja to the tree he was currently spying from, catching him completely by surprise.

The decoys smirked and left the area, to search for the prisoner's teammates.

Sasuke quickly searched the genin and found the scroll. Unfortunately it was another Heaven scroll.

"What a pity" said Naruto, pocketing the new scroll that Sasuke was passing him, while they were bounding away from the area they captured the rain nin in.

"It's still one more team that won't pass the exam if we hold on it." said Sasuke.

Suddenly Naruto froze, and began yelling: "An enemy attack! My clones are being... aaah!" and a humongous blast of wind sent him away, while Sakura and Sasuke had the time to grab a tree trunk and managed to stay in place only thanks of their chakra. Kunai ready, they awaited for a few moments, then they saw Naruto returning to them, a little ruffled, but almost unharmed.

Before he could get near, though, Sasuke got on his guard and asked: "What did you give me before entering the forest?". Naruto looked a little confused, but said: "I gave you our, scroll, what else?" Sakura and Sasuke immediately attacked, but the fake Naruto avoided them easily.

"Kukukuku! Good, Sasuke-kun, I see you managed to see through my disguise...."

* * *

Naruto threw several expletives while flying through the air, and landed... right in front of the biggest snake he had ever seen.

"It's.......HUUUGE!" he said, but then snake caught him from behind, with its tail that was burrowing underground while he was gaping. A couple seconds later he found himself swallowed whole.

* * *

A wave of the most horrifying killing intent he could imagine was paralyzing them in the spot. He could literally see his death delivered by that grass ninja. With a supreme effort of will, he managed to break out of the fear by canceling it with pain and managed to save himself and Sakura from the kunai thrown by the enemy ninja. Sakura tried to ask him if he was alright, but Sasuke stopped her before she could speak up. It has been a long time from the last time he has been so scared... since his brother...

And to even taunt them he/she SWALLOWED the Earth Scroll in its possession. They had no choice but to escape. That freak was too damn strong!

* * *

Blasting out from the snake with the creative use of the Shadow Clones, Naruto ran in the direction the blast of wind came from, until he saw Sasuke and Sakura stalked by the creepy tongue guy that felt weird before the start of the exam. Only he was slithering around a tree branch like a snake! Talk about creepy! Creating five clones and ordering them to provide cover fire, he threw a bundle of projectiles on the path of the ninja, before reaching his teammates. Sasuke was still shaken, and yelled to Naruto: "Naruto, you must flee! There is an abyss between him and us!"

The grass ninja laughed, with the creepiest laugh he ever heard.

"Kukukuku! Good, Sasuke-kun, you are learning... a prey must try to flee from the predator."

Then, Sasuke deactivated his sharingan, and told Sakura. "Sakura, give him the scroll! We can't beat him!" Sakura, despite knowing which scroll he was talking about, yelled: "But, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke had no idea if Sakura was simply acting or not, in his panic to escape he simply grabbed the trap scroll, primed it quickly and threw it to the grass nin.

"Kukukukuku. I see, you offer another prey to the predator in the hope it will find it more alluring..." he caught the scroll in one hand, smiling. Two seconds after he caught it, it exploded, raining kunai, while Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto fled with all their might. Sasuke knew that a ninja of that level wasn't likely to be dead after such a simple trap, but added with the fact that Naruto spammed the area with clones in their likeness increased their chance for survival significantly. That he basically owed this chance to escape to the dobe never touched his mind.

However his escape lasted only a few minutes. A giant snake bigger than the one who swallowed Naruto blocked his way, showing a singed but otherwise healthy ninja... who now had a sound headband. "Kukukuku, very good, Sasuke-kun, that has really been entertaining, but now I want to see what YOU are able to do!" And then jumped in his direction. Sasuke found himself alone, evidently in his panic he joined 2 clones instead of the true Sakura and Naruto. And they have been destroyed by the amazing ninja, who surely as he was there, it was NOT a genin! He would have to fend for himself for a little while!

Swallowing his panic he reactivated the sharingan and fought with everything he had, in the hope to survive for a little longer.

* * *

Naruto and Sakura managed to reach Sasuke only after the grass.. or rather sound nin released his fangs from Sasuke's neck. Naruto was petrified by fear, which gave way to an incredible rage at seeing his teammate in that condition. Red chakra flooded his system, consuming his body but giving him incredible power. The sound nin immediately recognized the source of his power, and toyed a little with the container of the nine-tailed fox, but was a little disappointed. While he had plenty of power, he was a little more than a berserker, completely unfit to be amongst his elite soldiers. However, this power could be a problem in the incoming invasion, so he caught Naruto in the neck using just his tongue... and proceeded to place a five element seal on him, throwing him away like garbage as soon as he was done.

Fortunately, Sakura managed to save his life by pinning his shirt to a tree with a thrown kunai.

"Kukukuku, that's been really fun. My name is Orochimaru, little girl. Tell Sasuke that if he wants more of the power I just gave him, he will have to come to me..."

He vanished in the ground after that, and Sakura was feeling out of her depth. Quickly checking the status of his two teammates, he realized that while Naruto had no visible injuries despite having seen him get a through beating, Sasuke was feverish and something black was forming in his neck, some kind of seal. Remembering Naruto medical and camping supplies, she quickly found a hiding place and built an emergency refuge. The first aid supplies in the scroll were very few, but at least there were a couple medicines to lower a fever. Realizing that this would be a very long day, she prepared to stand guard as long as it was needed. Gathering all their weapons, including Naruto remaining extra kunai, she began rigging trap after trap.

* * *

Naruto awoke in a sewer.

It was probably the strangest place he awoke, ever.

-_Hello, Naruto-chan!_- said a feminine voice. He recognized it! It was THAT mysterious voice! The one that gave him his family scroll!

He looked around, frantically, until his eyes fixed on that strange ball of multicolored light, just like in Wave.

"W-What are you?" he asked the flame.

-_What you are looking at, is a pyrefly. I'm simply using it to communicate with you, Naruto-chan._-

"Ah, so THIS is a pyrefly?" he asked, curious. He admired it, again, it was surely pretty to watch. He guessed it got the name pyrefly because it looked like a flaming firefly, with a multicolored flame, at least.

-_You still haven't realized it, right?_-

"Uh? What?"

-_As the scroll said, pyreflyes exist simultaneously both on the physical plane and the Farplane, the land of the dead._-

"uh... so?"

-_So, someone with our bloodline can use a pyrefly to communicate from and to the Farplane_-

A horrible suspect flooded his mind....

"Are you...?"

-_Yes, you finally seem to have got it, Naruto-chan. I am Uzumaki Kushina... and I am... was... your mother_-

"Mom....?" he said, not able to keep his eyes from watering.

-_I'm really sorry, Naruto-chan. Your father is, too, for leaving you all alone all this time. However I think you know who we have to thank for our separation...._-

"Can.. can I talk to him, too?" asked Naruto, forgetting the little detail that he still had to discover his identity.

-_I'm sorry Naruto-chan. Only someone with the White Chakra bloodline can communicate through pyreflyes. I can relay messages, though, but he will know everything we talked about as soon as we finish._-

"But I thought the fox was blocking my bloodline!"

-_He is. Remember what happened to you while you were awake?_-

He remembered the battle with the tongue freak... ah, the youki...

"My body is currently purging the youki, isn't it?"

-_Right on the first, Naruto-chan!_-

"Uh, where are we?"

-_This is the seal, Naruto-chan. You are here just with your mind and you are currently unconscious. We are here because this is a perfect opportunity to teach you how to speed up the death of the fox._-

"Really?" he looked around. It was fitting that something built to house that stupid fox resembled a sewer. The monster didn't deserve any better.

-_Yes. Look at those pipes_- The pyrefly hovered toward the pipes in the ceiling. -_The white ones are your chakra, full of the power of your bloodline. The red ones come from the fox. Come with me, and we'll see their origin._-

Following the pyrefly, they quickly reached an immense room. Within it they could see a likewise enormous prison kept closed by a slip of paper with the word "seal" on it. On the other side, there was a giant fox. Its fur was flaking and diseased-looking and had just 3 tails left. It was unconscious, too.

"So, now it is the sanbi no kitsune?" Naruto said, with a smirk.

-_Well, you could call it that._- said Kushina, and Naruto could imagine her smile.

-_However, let's not disturb it. If it rouses up it could become unpleasant. Let's go to the really important place._-

Naruto followed the pyrefly again, following the pipes in the ceiling, until he reached another big room. This room had what looked like a house heating system. The two pipes converged into a big... something black and a blue pipe left toward the darkness. Each pipe had a valve of some kind and the black box had a few control levers and dials.

-_This is the place where the seal mixes youki with White Chakra. The seal was supposed to be under maintenance at least once every two years, to accommodate your increased chakra capacity. Unfortunately, no one living knows that the efficiency of the seal could deteriorate with time._-

The pyrefly hovered around, showing him each control, lever or dial as she named them.

-_This is the place that has just been sealed thanks to your opponent_- said Kushina, hovering over a paper labeled "five element seal" over a red button named "emergency"

"Sealed? That tongue-freak put ANOTHER seal on me?"

-_Yes, Naruto-chan. This is the adrenaline safety feature that allows a controlled burst of youki to flow into your body if you perceive a deadly danger. You'll degenerate into a berserker, but you'll be much stronger, just like I wrote in the letter. Evidently your enemy was a very powerful ninja._-

"I'll say... Now what do these do?" indicating all the controls

-_The valves on the pipes regulate the amount of the relevant chakra allowed in the mixing chamber. This one, instead, the amount of youki released on your system. I STRONGLY suggest to leave that one alone unless you want to have more foxy accessories than the whisker marks. Those extra accessories would still disappear, but in a few years, after the death of the fox. Its original design made it so that the default youki absorption rate was in the safe side of the limit between temporary alteration to the vessel and semi-permanent ones. Temporary alteration would reverse in a few weeks after the final death of the prisoner. Semi-permanent ones would require years to reverse. And if you REALLY exaggerate you may end up with completely permanent alterations. You would still be human, because they would all be purely cosmetic changes even if you gained claws or similar things, but no one would believe you without extensive medical exams._-

Naruto shivered at the idea of being a medical lab specimen for the curiosity of some doctor.

-_Now, what you should do, is to use this dial to keep the rate of White Chakra to youki around the 1.5 value._-

Naruto looked at the current setting. It currently read 0.205

"What the?"

-_Yes, it was a good setting for a newborn, having little chakra and needing most of it to grow up..._-

"But I'm no longer a newborn...."

-_Right. You have a LOT more chakra, now. Beware, though. Putting this setting back to the nominal value will considerably reduce your chakra regeneration rate, because much more of the chakra generated by your body is going in here to kill the fox._-

"Hey, wait a moment. If not all my generated chakra is used to kill the fox, why does all of it becomes ordinary chakra?"

-_The mixer absorbs the properties of the leftover White chakra to power itself. Note that all your chakra flows through it._- the pyrefly hovered toward the incoming pipes.

"How long would it take to finish the fox if I set it back to the nominal value?" asked Naruto.

The pyrefly hovered over a couple of gauges, then replied:

-_Around half an year, maximum_-

Naruto smiled. It was looking good.

"Can I place it even higher than that?"

-_Uh... y-yes, but if it gets any higher than 5.0 your body will not receive enough chakra to live, much less move or perform jutsu. What do you have you in mind?_-

"I was thinking of leaving at nominal value for most of the day, and change it around 3.0 during the night."

The pyrefly hovered for a few minutes in complete silence.

-_I asked my great-grandfather about it. Luckily he was still around. He said it's an innovative way of using the seal, since no one has been that old still having its prisoner. All the demons previously killed that way by our clan were much weaker than the nine tails and the seals were properly __maintained. If you can access this room whenever you wish to, feel free to do as you planned._-

Naruto nodded.

The days of the fox were numbered, now.

"Uh, since you are here... what are the Celestial Gates?"

-_Hmm.. I seem to remember having put a challenge to get the book yourself in the letter, Naruto-chan..._- she said in a taunting voice.

"Oh, shut up, mom!" He said, not really angry.

He heard his mom laugh, and he tried to memorize it. He may not get another opportunity.

-_Oh, well. Remember this: once you master the scroll I left you, I'll give you the next one. Now it's time for you to wake up, you could still be in danger, I cannot see the outside world. And remember that once you learn to summon pyreflyes in the waking world, we'll be able to talk again._-

Hearing that, his motivation to master all the contents of the scroll increased a hundredfold.

-_And another piece of advice, since you have to wound yourself to do the main exercise... try to give a very good look at how your White Chakra heals you._-

"Uh?"

-_It's a hint for the first of the White Jutsu, Naruto-chan_-

Naruto smiled

-_Now go. And goodbye, Naruto-chan.-_

"Goodbye, mom."

He turned around and ran toward the exit....

… and awoke to the scene of team Gai and team 10 leaving the area, wondering for a minute why did it look like a war zone, all riddled with still smoking craters and riddled with kunai. Then he remembered all the exploding tags he gave them...

Sasuke and Sakura were looking around and Sakura had an Earth scroll in her hand. He checked himself and found the rain team Heaven scroll still in its place. All they had to do was to reach the tower.

Piece of cake!

* * *

Ok, maybe it wasn't that simple. Sasuke had gotten strange, he kept feeling weak at random moments and Sakura could not keep her eyes off him. He could swear she slept with her eyes open and fixed on him in her first 12 hours of rest.

Well, maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration, but surely she was smothering him. His newly reduced chakra regeneration could be felt when he used the Shadow Clones, but it was tolerable. He still had the soldier pills if things got dicey. He managed to get back to the seal whenever he wished by meditating, similar to how he searched for the Farplane so he started the Fox extermination regime he told his mother. Away from the eyes of his team, he also practiced the fish killing exercise, with 2 fish at once, to do it faster. Naturally he killed them at different times. Now he regularly managed to follow those fish for about 10 seconds. Apparently not enough, yet.

After 2 days of Sasuke and Naruto being unconscious and another 2 to let Sakura and Sasuke recover, they were on their last day to get to the tower. He had already seeded the area with clones, to find a safe route, when he suddenly groaned.

"Do you know... there is that rain guy of the first day, and his two friends... and they got tricked again by a decoy team."

"We don't have time for those losers. If they got caught twice with the same trick they are too weak to pass this exam and they no longer have the scroll." said Sasuke. "Ignore them and let's get to the tower."

Naruto nodded, smirked a bit, created and dispersed a clone with the orders and left.

They reached the tower 2 hours later without any problems.

* * *

"Uh... what are they doing?" said the first of the rain-nin to the second.

"I have no idea. It seems they are playing a card game..." said the third

"Uh.. it looks like strip poker...the pink haired one just yelled in frustration and removed her jacket!"

"Do we attack? Or do we wait until..."

"We'll wait to see if the girl continues to lose."

"Agreed....."

"Agreed!"

"_Stupid perverts..._" thought the clone hidden behind them....


	6. The preliminaries part 1

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 6: The preliminaries - part 1

by Chronodt

"Iruka-sensei!" yelled Naruto, as soon as the smoke from the two scrolls dissipated.

"Hello, Naruto. I wanted to congratulate all of you personally for getting past the second part of the exam."

All three of the genin looked a little smug at those words.

"Well, since I'm here, I am supposed to explain the meaning of that poem..."

He looked at Naruto, and decided to use the super short explanation instead of the standard one: "Well, it can be really condensed this way: if your body is weak, train, if your mind is weak, study. Only from a sound body and a sound mind you can realize your potential and succeed in any mission. It is the chunin motto written by the Third Hokage."

Sakura and Sasuke nodded. Naruto looked a little pensive, then nodded, too.

Naruto, meanwhile was thinking how much that poem was true. Since he began studying... REALLY studying thanks to his family's scroll he became much stronger even if he didn't do as much physical training as before. Using Shadow Clones to study while he trained would let him get the absolutely best results! And he still had to verify which kind of training would benefit from the memory sharing thing, too!

"So, Iruka sensei" started Sakura, "was it you who taught to Naruto all those seals?"

"No, Sakura, I just gave him a book. I'm not allowed to train genin level skills without your superior's permission, Kakashi for you three. My lesson to Naruto were remedial academic level ones." Naruto looked mortified by Iruka words, but they were still true and wouldn't arouse favoritism calls against him or Kakashi.

Sakura nodded, and realized that unlike Naruto, Iruka could not help her. She was the top kunoichi at the academy, after all, so all the skill he could learn from him were skills he would not be allowed to teach her without Kakashi's permission. She resolved to talk soon to her teacher about it. Even with Naruto's entire explosive arsenal and her repertoire of traps, she barely slowed down those sound genin that wanted Sasuke-kun's life. If it wasn't for Lee, team 7 would probably be no more. Fashion sense apart, Lee was incredibly strong, being able to beat even Sasuke-kun, and despite that he was defeated by two of those ninja.

She touched her now-shortened hair. Her own battle with the sound girl demonstrated her how inferior she was compared to the other kunoichi.

She was weak.

The poem was right. She had a weak body, but didn't train. Naruto had a weak mind, but he started studying and took remedial lessons to cover up his slacking off during his academy days. And he has improved tremendously, his fight with Orochimaru was the best proof. Sasuke already had a strong body and a strong mind, and he was the strongest in the team.

She had to gain back the lost ground.

* * *

Naruto idly walked around the interior of the tower, waiting the remaining half day until the official end of the second part of the exam, and checked out his hands for a little while. Despite cutting himself so many times daily, there was not a single scar in them. Looking closer, he could feel a decent amount of White Chakra in them, still, and he wondered. Finding a quiet place, he sat in a lotus position and started examining his own chakra, and found out that there was a lot of White Chakra residual in his body and tried to pinpoint the source. Slipping in a deep meditation, he entered the seal and hurriedly went to check the mixing chamber.

He met a pyrefly there, floating around the pipes.

"Ah, right, the scroll said they lived in the chakra, even mine."

He looked at the lone pyrefly, almost expecting to hear his mother's voice, but he realized that unlike the other times he would have to call her, somehow.

"Mom?" he asked in the direction of the pyrefly.

No answer, the pyrefly simply floated around the pipe aimlessly.

He tried again a few more times, and realized that this wasn't the right way to call her.

"When I talk to mom through those things I always hear them inside my head...." he mused aloud. "and I need the White Chakra to communicate...."

Concentrating on the feeling of the White Chakra inside him, he called out with his mind.

-_Mom?_-

It took two more tries, until the pyrefly answered.

-_Naruto-chan, what happened?_-

Naruto was elated for his success.

-_I just found out that I still have residuals of White Chakra in my system, and came here to check if something was wrong with the seal. I saw the pyrefly and called you, to help me check._-

The pyrefly, taken over by Kushina, started examining the controls. Naruto tried, too, but he had no true knowledge of all those dials and levers.

-_I think this is good, Naruto-chan. Apparently your putting such a high mixing rate during the night allows the mixing seal to get plenty of power, so some White Chakra can get to your body. Not very much, but enough to learn and use a couple times the first few E-level White Jutsu._-

"AWESOME!" yelled Naruto, starting an impromptu dance to show his happiness to the world.. or at least the only other one able to see him. Even if it was only an academy-level jutsu, it was the first jutsu that belonged only to him, testament of the past existence of his family.

-_Why did he inherit THAT from his father?_- stated in a low voice the exasperated but amused Kushina.

When her hyperactive son finally calmed down, Kushina resumed speaking.

-_I'll give you the scroll as soon as you leave the seal, so copy it like the other one. Learn the first one, Cure. Be aware that a few of the higher level ninja in Konoha know about our family jutsu, and considering your last name, will put it together that you are my son if you use them before other people. Remember also what I said about people being able to find out who your father was by knowing me being your mother. You could be found out by his enemies._-

Naruto could see this only as a plus. A few more enemies wouldn't increase by much the number of people who wanted him dead, right?

* * *

A few hours later, the Tsuchikage found a report on his desk from the hospital.

"What does it mean that most of my senior ninja and a good deal of the civilian population has just got a collective and simultaneous mild cold?" asked the surprised Kage.

* * *

And after all a monster didn't have a family, didn't it? If he had real human parents that people could trace, most of the "proof" that he was the fox would be unvalidated. Well, from the rational ones, at least. There were always stupids around...

-_Don't stop studying the first scroll, though!_-

"Don't worry, mom!"

-_Now go, I'll prepare the scroll._-

He nodded, yelled his happiness again and left the mixing chamber, still yelling and jumping.

-_Definitely all Minato, right?_- asked a hopeful Kushina to the empty room.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes and grinned. He immediately took out a new scroll and waited about 5 minutes before a bunch of pyrefly appeared, and joined together to become a scroll.

"So that's why I had to copy them, they were made of pyreflyes!"

It made sense, actually, if they came from the Farplane. He created the usual 2 clones to copy it and sent them to seclude themselves in a corner somewhere and copy the new scroll. It was much shorter than the first one and was titled: "Uzumaki family scroll – basic 2" A quick survey, indicated that this was the first scroll that made direct use of the White Chakra to craft jutsu. He couldn't wait until he mastered them all!

He took out the spare scrap of paper where he copied just the instruction for the Cure jutsu, went in a separate area to train in it and read them again.

"_As the first thing, I must study how my White Chakra naturally heals my own wounds. Heh, that's what mom intended with that hint. Then I must consciously recreate that construct with White Chakra, to heal myself with a greater efficiency. The third step is to learn how to build that construct inside the body of someone else by sending over my White Chakra, first at touch, then at a distance. The higher the distance, the more chakra control is required, but even perfect control won't give me a range greater than a few dozen meters. So this was the reason for that anatomy book, so I could know which areas to heal first to obtain the best results. Well, let's start!!_"

Having a great deal of practice with cutting and healing himself up, he quickly managed to build the construct. It was easy, really. No wonder it was an E-rank jutsu despite his own personal problems with the standard clone.

Not wanting to waste all of his minute reserves of White Chakra, he just built the construct and then disassembled it to let it go without waste, putting the energy back in his coils. He wanted something living to test his new jutsu on and practice the third step, but just as his mom said, he just had one or two shots. "_Better to keep it for myself in the third part of the exam. I'll train with it after I've finished here._"

Returning to the room Iruka appeared in, he suddenly was aware of new memories from one of the clones. They had already copied and needed just his blood to activate the seal. What was more important, was that he had inadvertently mastered one of the three steps of the Scan jutsu, a high D-level White jutsu: he could already communicate mentally through a pyrefly. He had to learn to "read" it, to learn the things that happened to the host chakra and the third step would be to send a minute tendril of White Chakra to reach a ninja's pyreflyes inside his coils and read them, similar on how genjutsu actually work. Alternatively, if in combat, he could read the pyreflyes from the chakra the enemy expelled to form jutsu, but then it would only give information about that particular jutsu. Reading a pyrefly would give an ENOURMOUS deal of knowledge about the chakra that particular pyrefly lived in, and the scroll said that I could easily learn the strength level of a ninja, what his favorite jutsu do (in a very generic sense) his true name (naturally if the host knew of it) and elemental alignment. Pure gold in the ninja world, just like the scary first examiner said. He immediately started searching his own coils for a pyrefly and found one. It took him half an hour to be able to read his own pyreflyes, and even then he got only a few scant information. His name (Uzumaki Naruto, he REALLY hoped to find his father's last name...), his elemental affinity (wind, good to know, one less chakra paper to buy) his favorite jutsu (naturally the Shadow Clone, but this one may become as frequently used) and a gauge of his chakra level, control and his proficiency in the tree ninja arts, but since it was only a sensation, he had no reference until he started scanning others for a comparison. He could not get his general health or actual chakra levels, but he guessed it would come from practice.

Since Cure training was out, he tried to "read" the bastard while they lounged in the room without him noticing. It took him almost 3 hours to do it, and he depleted half of his meager reserves of White Chakra to even reach that point. He learned that the bastard was much better than him in all of the three ninja arts, but he was closer to him in ninjutsu. Sasuke compared to him had a much lower chakra capacity and slightly better control, a natural lightning affinity and an acquired fire one, probably due to all those fire jutsu he knew. He obviously had the sharingan, activated to the second level in each eye, and it meant he could see high speed movements, memorize and copy jutsu and taijutsu by seeing chakra and handseals. Everything else he already knew about him. He was tempted to Scan Sakura-chan, but he decided he would wait until after the test.

* * *

Kabuto observed his target. Despite not having an excuse to meet Sasuke in the forest, since he had both scrolls and trail rations, he still managed to spy on him for those 4 rest days without anyone noticing. The blond one, Naruto, had a lot of sentries, usually, but he was just a sub-standard genin, no trouble for the sound elite he represented. He had noticed his "experiments" with the fish, but put it away as a strange hobby of the stupid blond. After all, even Orochimaru did similar things in his youth, and used his genius to turn those hobbies in some of the greatest scientific experiments. That boy was a dunce, instead, so probably did it just for a bit of cruel fun. Probably an effect from the youki leaking into his brain. "_A pity Orochimaru-sama doesn't want him due to those ex-acquaintances of his, he could be a perfect specimen to study the effects of youki on human cells..._"

* * *

Naruto and the rest of team 7 entered a spacious room on the ground floor of the tower together with the other six teams who passed the second part of the exam. There were 2 statues holding a handseal on opposite sides of the room and a raised spectator area. After the speech of the Hokage and the sickly proctor, Hayate, they knew the third test, or at least the preliminary for it, required individual fights.

To Naruto's immense surprise, Kabuto gave up before even trying. Even if his memory of him was just that of the shadow clone he left before the first exam, he looked tough, and this was his seventh exam! How could he just give up like that? And his excuse of not being able to hear from an ear or of being all beaten up... it wouldn't stop him! He contemplated Scanning him, but decided to conserve his reserves for his battle. A quick Scan as soon as he knew who it was so to form a viable plan...

He was shaken off his thoughts when he heard Sakura begging Sasuke to quit. Her reasoning was sound, but he himself would never give up if he was in the bastard's place. And her mentioning a mark.. could she mean a seal? Did that tongue-freak put a seal on Sasuke, too? He had to tell sensei, fast! Maybe he can remove both, since the seal on his stomach was so complex he couldn't even start understanding what it did if his mother didn't already tell him of its effects on the fox's prison.

Sasuke then started to tell off Sakura-chan, and when she protested, Sasuke did something that surprised Naruto.

Sasuke just said… "_He wants to fight me too?!_"

Sasuke, the selfish bastard, the stealer of the affections of his precious Sakura-chan, the one who always overshadowed him, the one everyone wanted to emulate... wanted to fight him, too?

Could he... had he just acknowledged him?

* * *

As soon as the spectators moved to the top level, Naruto intercepted Kakashi-sensei.

"Sensei, I need to speak with you, it's urgent."

Kakashi barely moved an eye in his direction. Naruto accepted it as a 'go ahead'

"We met a powerful ninja in the exams. I don't know his name, but he was really freaky, he summoned snakes and moved like one, too! He initially wore a grass forehead protector, but later he revealed a sound one."

"His name is Orochimaru, S-rank level missing-nin of Konoha." said Kakashi, filing away the sound reference to tell the Hokage later.

"While we were fighting.. " he looked around to see if anyone was looking, then continued, "My seal released a little of _that_ chakra, and that guy to stop me placed another seal over it. Sakura was also saying something about a mark on Sasuke, he could have placed a seal on him, too!"

Kakashi now was worried. He hoped it was only some kind of restraining seal on Naruto. He tried to sense his chakra, but felt no youki in it and managed to calm himself down.

"We were already aware of Sasuke's mark. I plan to take care of it as soon as he finishes his fight. Yours was probably a restriction seal of some kind. I'll have Hokage bring a seal master to you tomorrow."

Naruto nodded, it was only right, and if they already knew about Sasuke's then there was nothing to worry about.

Returning to pay attention to Sasuke's fight (he promoted himself from bastard to Sasuke after his acknowledgement) he noticed that his teammate really wasn't feeling well.

"What the hell are you doing, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, "I won't forgive you if you lose!"

Sasuke looked at him, then it seemed like he just had an idea, and managed to use Freaky Eyebrow's taijutsu attack to get his opponent in the air, and then to execute a combo attack that knocked out Yoroi, despite the fact that for a moment that mark expanded to cover his neck and face causing him pain.

Naruto was relieved to see Kakashi accompany Sasuke away to fix that mark, hoping his sensei could finish it fast enough to see Sakura and him fight. Hopefully not against each other.

* * *

Shino's fight against Zaku proved to be really fascinating, but he made a mental note to ask his mother how his family jutsu would fare against a living hive of chakra-draining bugs. Sakura instead was really behaving strangely, murmuring something about icky bugs, not being allowed to swap, and luck. Weird.

As soon as Shino's fight ended, Kakashi sensei reappeared in a puff of smoke, telling them that Sasuke was now resting in the hospital.

Both Naruto and Sakura sighed, relieved.

The next fight, Kankuro vs Tsurugi Misumi was almost the first fatality of the preliminaries, revealing Kankuro as a puppet master and the crushing defeat of the boneless guy, Tsurugi. Naruto really pitied the man, he probably now was both literally crushed and boneless. Kankuro certainly was ruthless.

After that, a new pairing appeared in the panel: Sakura vs Ino.

Naruto was extremely curious about Sakura-chan's opponent. They hated each others because of Sasuke, but it was more a heated rivalry than hate. He contemplated Scanning Ino, but she wasn't his opponent, and had to conserve energy. He encouraged Sakura numerous times during the battle, but she still ended up in a tie, but demonstrated that she wasn't a weak ninja, probably to herself more than to the others. He realized also that she had used up ALL the exploding tags he brought, all 400 of them in the forest, or else she would have used them here. As soon as he saw it wasn't his turn, he immediately retreated a bit and sent a clone to write a dozen of them up in a hurry.

The battle between the sand chick, Temari and Fuzzy Eyebrows' teammate Tenten showed him the advantages of wind techniques against thrown weapons. Considering his newly discovered elemental affinity he tried to imagine himself with a similar huge battle fan, but he had no idea of where to start getting those fan techniques and discarded the idea.

And the sand chick's treatment of a fellow leaf grated within him. Luckily Fuzzy Eyebrows caught her before she got hurt.

Next, was the turn of Shikamaru and Kin Tsuchi, the sound girl. He REALLY wanted to conserve his White Chakra, but he owed Shika for his tip in his first test, so he Scanned her.

As Shikamaru lazily passed him, Naruto whispered: "She is a genjutsu specialist and uses sound-based ones somehow tied to senbon needles and wires. Her other abilities are below average. Good luck, Shika, and don't lose!"

Shikamaru nodded and proceeded to the floor below.

The battle was rather quick, Shikamaru outsmarted his opponent and made her crash her head on the wall. Probably wouldn't have even needed Naruto's help to win.

But now, it was the show time!

Because on the panel there was Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba!!

He was going to WIN!

* * *

OMAKE:

A few hours later, the Tsuchikage found a report on his desk from the hospital.

"What does it mean that most of my senior ninja and a good deal of the civilian population has just got a collective and simultaneous mild cold?" asked the surprised Kage.

Then he realized that he, too, a few hours ago had a bout of sneezes without apparent reason, and thought of only one explanation. Really, it should have been obvious, he was still the bane of his existence even after all these years and his death.

He stood abruptly, went to the window and yelled: "NAMIKAZE MINATO, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!"

A foreign ambassador just outside the door sweatdropped hearing it, and the secretary simply said: "Don't worry, he does it often, but it's a harmless habit. It's much worse the fact that it takes him 2 days to find his office again if he ever leaves it....."


	7. The preliminaries part 2

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 7: The preliminaries - part 2

by Chronodt

Naruto smirked at Kiba. In his pocket there were only the 14 exploding notes his clone hurriedly wrote during Tenten and Shikamaru's matches. Scanning Kiba, and subsequently Akamaru, revealed interesting information. Unfortunately, it also revealed that Kiba was stronger than him in all three main ninja specialties. His main ability was in ninjutsu, in particular the beast combo with his dog. His taijutsu was more devoted to let out his feral instincts than structured practice and had no genjutsu above henge, not that he himself was any better in it, but at least he wouldn't take advantage of his main weak point. His opening move will surely be theShikyaku no Jutsu, the four-leg technique to increase strength and speed, and use then combo attack with the Juujin Bunshin, to transform Akamaru into the likeness of Kiba. The smart thing to do would be to separate them, somehow, but he wanted to dominate the battle with Kiba at full strength, or he would whine that he couldn't use his best jutsu and that his win was a fluke. Considering his store of White Chakra, that he could use only to heal himself for now, could give him an immense advantage in stamina. And if he came to be wounded in battle, he would get a little more White Chakra from the seal. Time would be his friend. He began planning a prolonged battle, but it would work only if the difference in strength and speed wasn't TOO large.

"HA! This will be a piece of cake, Akamaru! We have practically already won!" the little white dog barked once as an answer.

Akamaru battle data was as interesting as Kiba's. Akamaru was strong in taijutsu and a little less in ninjutsu compared to Kiba, but he was weaker than Naruto in all tree areas. It was just a puppy after all..

Unfortunately, Kiba's technique would allow to equilibrate the partners and compensate the difference between dog and master, making them indistinguishable at a first sight. Their senses also were many times more powerful than a regular human, making most trickery a one-time deal, because once Kiba started becoming suspicious he would check everything.

"Don't dare to underestimate me, Kiba!" said Naruto, smirking, hoping that he would, instead. It would make his humiliation total.

"Begin!" said the examiner, Hayate.

"Let's go, Akamaru!" and joined the hands to form a seal.

Before Kiba could act, Naruto threw a kunai at Kiba, who dodged easily.

"Heh, missed! Shikyaku no Jutsu!" yelled Kiba, as predicted. Naruto decided to see with his eyes Kiba's new strength, since he wouldn't be able to stop him performing that technique for the whole match. Preparing to receive Kiba's punch, the clone Kiba has been confronting all this time collected chakra to protect himself and last a bit more after the impact so he could adequately assess his opponent's strength and give that information back to the original, hidden by a henge as the kunai just thrown, now lying on the ground behind Akamaru. Kiba rushed him with an awesome speed and punched him right into the wall, cracking it and partially collapsing it on the clone.

"Ha, how weak!" said Kiba. On the observation deck, many people were silently agreeing with Kiba, except team 7.

"Did he just...?" asked Sakura, remembering Zabuza's first meeting.

The Naruto that crashed into the wall disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"What?" said the stunned Kiba.

Behind Akamaru, the true Naruto revealed himself and captured the puppy, tying him down with ninja wire and leaving him on the ground. If Kiba wanted to free him he would have to risk himself a bit more.

"Damn coward! Give me back Akamaru!" yelled Kiba

"Why should I? Your best techniques require his presence, so without Akamaru your combat abilities are crippled."

Kiba became furious, and launched himself in a spiraling technique, calling "Tsuuga!"

Despite what Naruto said, he truly wanted to fight Kiba and Akamaru together, but he could not afford it. After having felt on his cloned skin the power and speed of his attacks, he realized that he would lose if he left such an advantage to the Inuzuka opponent. He created a series of clones to keep Akamaru safe but at the same moment, away from Kiba. Now he just had to tire him out a bit.... without being eviscerated first!

* * *

"Wow, who ever though that Naruto could outsmart Kiba?" said Ino, surprised.

"He probably had a couple plans as soon as he was before those two. He observed the strength of Kiba alone and must have decided to separate him from the dog." said Shikamaru.

They observed a few more "Tsuuga" attacks from Kiba, noting how Naruto barely avoided most of them, but being hit more than a couple of times and not just the clones, either.

"It was a smart thing, too. Kiba is both faster and stronger than Naruto by a good margin. Now I want to see what he plans to do now, because Kiba is calming down."

* * *

As Shikamaru said, Kiba started regaining his composure and focus, even biting his own hand to get over his rage. His primary objective now was the recovery of Akamaru, not reducing to a pulp Naruto. That could wait those few more seconds. Deciding for a course of action, he gathered behind his back a smoke bomb and a few kunai. After he raised his hand to throw the bomb, Naruto could not believe his own eyes, because Kiba was providing him with the key element of a plan one of his clones contemplated but discarded, lacking a way to obscure his sight, before being destroyed by a Tsuuga. Kiba let the smoke bomb explode, covering the area in a dense smoke, and immediately flew like an arrow toward Akamaru's scent, peppering the area where he smelt Naruto with the kunai. He was enraged because he suddenly smelt Akamaru's blood, too! Naruto had hurt him for no reason! He felt a few "pop" of those damn clones exploding, but he managed to steal Akamaru back. He lost a few precious seconds cutting away the wire and finally he let him retreat to a safe zone, while he pulled out the soldier pills to give the punk the lesson he clearly deserved. However, simply beating him down was no longer an option. He hurt Akamaru and made him look like a fool before Hinata, his sensei and the Hokage himself, and he would repay it with the same medicine.

"Now, what will you do, now that I have the clear advantage?" taunted Kiba, waiting for the cloud to dissipate. He knew from the blood smell that he got him with a kunai, and wasn't surprised to see Naruto holding his wounded right shoulder. It was a pity it wasn't a more critical area.

"Not so tough, now, right?" laughed Kiba, until something registered as wrong in his senses. Akamaru's blood smell from beside him was covering up Naruto's scent!

He hurriedly looked down where the freed Akamaru was, and saw "his" dog activate a large array of seals written all around his position, with kunai placed in 12 strategic locations. Kunai with now glowing explosive notes.

The Naruto before him deactivated his henge, showing himself to be just a little battered. The kunai cut him, true, but the injury was much less severe than what the henge shoved. Naruto smirked and said: "That is a trap, Kiba, primed to explode if you move or in 10 seconds, whatever comes first. Give up and I'll defuse it."

* * *

"How? When?" asked Sakura, completely surprised. She turned to Kakashi sensei, who was watching with the sharingan eye uncovered. Despite the smoke cloud, easily obscuring the sight of even his sharingan eye, he was a genius and a jonin and could easily guess what happened inside it:

"He created a few clones as soon as the smoke appeared, and used them to draw the seal while the smoke covered them. One of those clones henged into Akamaru and waited until Kiba rescued the true dog then Switched with it. With all that smoke he wouldn't have noticed a bit more, but to make the switch more credible, he took some blood from the true dog to cover his own scent. So Kiba, both enraged and worried about the wound of his dog, was too distracted to note the switch. So he freed the henged clone and let it go near the almost completed trap. Kiba followed Akamaru's blood scent and retreated beside the dog clone, right in the middle of that circle. The fake dog just had to activate it. A masterful tactic, splendidly executed." said Kakashi-sensei. "I can think of several ways of how he managed to mask the true Akamaru's smell, but I don't think he knows those jutsus. It was probably that seal array." he nodded toward a small rune circle that was just becoming visible through the smoke.

"So you knew of Naruto's training with seals?" asked Sakura.

"Iruka informed me, yes. It was his duty after all, I'm your commander. Naruto also knew Iruka would inform me as soon as he reached a level where his knowledge became useful on the field."

Sakura remained silent for a while...

* * *

Hayate looked at the seal on the floor and saw that it was a really easy D-rank seal trap, the Explosive Cage, the sort a genin could normally see and avoid in his sleep. It is so completely obvious and visible that requires something like that smoke cover and either a dumb opponent or a heavily distracted one to utilize fully, as the Uzumaki boy just demonstrated. The true dog was also in a smaller, more complex C-rank array, the Still Air Seal, that would stop air currents, useful during stakeouts to stop scents from propagating, but little used because it has to be reformed and deleted at every change in position. Stealth jutsus are generally better in every way, but the kid evidently doesn't know any. Ingenious use of a non-combat seal and an impractical one in a battle situation. If this was the third test and he was one of the judges, he would surely have voted for the kid's promotion just for that feat. He also apparently had some information on his opponent's fighting style, he anticipated his moves a bit too many times, but that was only a plus, especially because he came up with a plan to counter it and use his fighting advantage against itself.

Seeing that the Inuzuka had no idea on how to get out before the trap exploded, he said: "Inuzuka Kiba is unable to free himself. Winner, Uzumaki Naruto. Please hurry to dismantle the trap."

The Uzumaki kid nodded, and the clone who activated the seal put chakra in three seemingly innocuous glyphs and the symbols returned to their inert state. The original ripped away the tags from the kunai and collected them back. "_There aren't that many genin with any expertise in seals. It should be interesting, this Uzumaki Naruto._"

* * *

"YES! That was great!" yelled Sakura

"I can't believe it, Naruto won!" said Ino, despite the previous comments from Shikamaru. Chouji, behind them, said: "It was a good fight, though."

"Yeah, but now we'll have to hear his troublesome bragging all he way here..." said Shikamaru, who despite his words and tone had looked really interested in the fight.

"YOOOOSH!" yelled a green clad genin nearby, nearly deafening the trio. "Now it will surely be my turn, Gai sensei!"

* * *

"Sorry about hurting Akamaru, Kiba." said Naruto, apologetic.

Kiba was on the verge of an explosion, but calmed down after Akamaru barked for a bit. "It was a ninja battle and you didn't hurt him more than you had to. Akamaru forgives you, so I guess I will, too." he said, a little depressed.

"You have been the best opponent I ever had, Kiba. Not the strongest, but the best!" said Naruto with a mischievous smile. Then he ran away.

"HEY!" roared Kiba, mock-chasing him upstairs.

"Children... " said Hayate, coughing a couple of lungs away.

* * *

"Naruto-kun" said Hinata, gathering a little bit of courage. She approached the boy and offered him a little box.

"Uh? What is it, Hinata?"

"Medicinal cream" said Kurenai sensei, behind him. "You should accept it, Hinata made it herself and it's incredibly effective."

Naruto nodded. "Thank you, Hinata!"

After having mostly healed Akamaru with his first successful Cure jutsu as soon as he was declared winner, he had no White Chakra left. Healing others was a lot less efficient, but maybe it will be only a matter of practice.

After applying a little bit of that cream on his skin, he felt the wound close, similar, if in a smaller scale, to the effects of his own bloodline.

"This stuff is incredible, Hinata! You have true talent in medicine making!"

Hinata became redder than a tomato and turned away her eyes. She really can't take a compliment...

* * *

"About Naruto's seals...Why you never said anything to him? Or to us?" Sakura asked Kakashi, seeing that Naruto was occupied with Hinata.

"About what? He was just beginning with them, even if Iruka showed me a couple of his creations and were really good. If Naruto told you a month ago that he wanted to learn seals, what would have been your answer? Be honest."

Sakura looked down.

"I ... would have told him that he was too stupid to do something that complicated and to give it up..."

"I think he wanted to show you his ability only when he had already reached a sufficient level of mastery, but the exam came a bit too soon. However he had good judgment in telling all of you before the start of the second test, his sealing abilities would have made you suspicious of him if he didn't."

"I had already been impressed by the little he showed us... And what he used on Kiba..."

"Oh, those are just practice seals. They work, but are mostly impractical in a true battle. What made his fight so good was the fact that the seal that made the final trap is so visible that is almost impossible to catch someone in it. And I guess that if he didn't manage to get Kiba in the seal circle he would have simply primed just the exploding notes. Akamaru was still in his hands, after all."

"I'm surprised he didn't use him as a hostage." said Sakura. "It would have been the fastest way to win."

"Probably Naruto didn't want to. To Kiba, Akamaru is his most precious friend. Naruto would never be able to forgive himself if he threatened him that way. A simple cut with a kunai like Naruto did to fool him is a perfectly acceptable battle injury even to a hothead like Kiba. And look at Kiba himself, now. He lost, but as he began thinking back to the battle, he most likely realized he has been outclassed both in the tactical and the information gathering side of the fight, just like he outclassed Naruto in strength, speed and ninjutsu."

"Yes, just like all of us, he saw Naruto the academy dead last not Naruto the shinobi." said Sakura with a little shame.

Kakashi covered his eye and took out his book, to the disgust of Sakura.

* * *

Naruto was ecstatic, his clone's plan succeeded beyond all his expectations. Well technically it was HIS plan, but he wanted to give credit where is was due! The Shadow Clone technique and his secret was the very best thing that could happen in his life after ramen and his bloodline. With all those minds thinking different tactics while fighting he could come up with impressive ones in the nick of time, multiplying his tactical effectiveness many times over!

He passed Hinata's cream to Kiba and Akamaru, too and they used it with enthusiasm, evidently aware of her ability, but he seemed a bit peeved that his teammate had given it to him first. Strange...

Akamaru's wound closed very fast and Naruto was relieved that both Akamaru and his pet dog (snicker) bore him no ill will for the hostage situation. Well, not too much. At least it was a friend who made him aware of that possibility first and not an enemy ninja.

Even Akamaru had realized it, apparently, and Kiba was now pampering the puppy under the eyes of his sensei. Speaking of her, he met her gaze and she nodded, then returned her attention to Kiba.

It felt really good to gain the approval of the sensei of a ninja he defeated, really! It meant that he was closer to recognition and a step nearer to his dream! And not only her, he saw even the old man Hokage approved of his fight! He never felt prouder of himself. He couldn't wait to tell his mother all about it!

* * *

As soon as the new match-up appeared, Kiba hurriedly got up and reached Hinata, speaking with her. He was probably trying to encourage her for her match, because the two names were Hyuga Hinata and Hyuga Neiji. They probably had some kind of bad blood between them, because Neiji was staring daggers at Hinata, with a gaze full of loathing and hate. Naruto was very acquainted with both, thanks to the fox. Neiji's gaze was at the level of his worst haters. If he had just enough White Chakra left, he would Scan him, but his eyes would probably see his probe and call on him for some kind of cheating, possibly getting both Hinata and him disqualified. He looked a prick enough to do it just for spite. It wasn't worth it.

* * *

Neiji would die, slowly. How dare he belittle Hinata, beating her to within an inch of her life and call her weak and a loser even when she got up after a heart shot? He already knew about the tenketsu, the chakra circulatory system and the byakugan due to the library books, so Lee's explanation during the match didn't tell him much he didn't already know, and was aware of the danger of the Gentle Fist. To see it first hand, though, was absolutely fascinating, at least until Neiji allowed the sewer that was his brain to connect to his mouth and to vomit trash about Hinata. He got so angry that he couldn't stop himself from yelling up to encourage Hinata to beat that ass up.

And when Neiji attacked despite the proctor telling him not to, he was too slow to help, but fortunately four jonin intervened, including Kakashi sensei, and stopped him from killing Hinata.

But when she fell down, coughing up blood, he had to go to her, his worry giving him speed to get to her side and check her up. He had no more White Chakra, but somehow in his desperation he managed to extract a trickle of it from the seal, just enough for a single Cure jutsu. He crafted the construct in her heart, hoping it would be enough. Cure is just an E-level jutsu and not designed for such heavy injuries, but at least it could alleviate them. He felt the energy leaving him and her breathing recover. She would hopefully live, now, until she received professional help.

But as he said earlier, her cousin would not.

He hoped Hinata wasn't too attached to him, especially after what he did to her.

And when Neiji told him that HE was a loser, too, he just put a few more nails in his coffin, really.

He would have to thank Orochimaru's seal for once, because without that, he would have inundated the room with escaped youki and reduced that prick into a red smear in the ground.

His fury became cold, instead, and simply swore on Hinata's blood that he would defeat him in the most humiliating way he could think of. He would decide if he was going to really kill him or not after Hinata's recovery...

* * *

"Mother doesn't like the smell of that blond's chakra." said Gaara, looking at the show below him. His sibling were starting to fidget a little, but it was just a mild blood lust, not truly worrying for their continued health, for the moment.

However they started praying for the soul of that guy, because attracting their little brother's attention was a synonym of a very short life...


	8. The preliminaries part 3

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 8: The preliminaries - part 3

by Chronodt

Subaku no Gaara and Rock Lee were the names in the electronic board. Chouji was incredibly happy to have avoided the two strongest genin that still had to fight, but not as much as Lee having finally his turn, and avoiding to be the last one. After a few completely obvious observation from Gai sensei, Lee jumped down to meet his opponent, who had used a sand shunshin as soon as his name appeared in the board.

Naruto was just glad that he had been spared from seeing THAT genjutsu again.

Gaara looked completely impassible, but suddenly, the gourd stopper flew toward Lee, with an impressive speed. Lee simply caught it with a single hand.

Hayate let the fight begin and Lee started a series of impressive taijutsu attacks, but none got past Gaara's sand shield.

"If that shield is blocking all his attacks, why doesn't he retreat a bit and use a few ninjutsu?" asked Sakura, curious.

"It's not that Lee doesn't use ninjutsu." started Gai, with a serious expression. "Simply Lee has no talent at all in ninjutsu or genjutsu."

"What? How did he get here, then?" asked a shocked Sakura. Naruto, too was surprised.

"When I first met him, he had absolutely no talent, the only thing he could do was taijutsu. And that's why he can win!" he said with a glint in his eyes.  
"Lee, take them off!" yelled Gai, after a last series of unsuccessful attacks all blocked by the sand.

"But, Gai sensei, didn't you tell me I couldn't remove them unless I had to protect a lot of precious people?"

"I will allow it!" he said, in the 'good guy pose'

Lee looked very happy and started to remove the orange leg warmers, to uncover weights. And to the surprise of everyone, they literally caused two craters in the stone floor below just by being dropped.

"How could he move with that speed with all that weight?" asked Naruto

"It is because of his hard work and dedication." replied Gai. "GO, LEE!" yelled, basking a bit in pride of his prized student.

Lee at that point became so fast it was hard to believe. He could even run on the ceiling just thanks to his speed, and could circumvent the sand shield, by moving too fast for it to react in time.

Gaara, however, had a second layer of defense, an armor composed of sand, that absorbed all of Lee's hits. Lee barely managed to crack it, revealing that below, Gaara had an absolutely insane expression of crazed bloodlust.

With a quick look at Gai sensei, Lee realized that he had to perform the Lotus to win and that his sensei realized it too and approved.

With a lightning fast move, Lee kicked repeatedly Gaara, with the first hitting him under the chin to make him fly in the air. The repeated kicking necessary due to the heavy weight of the sand armor. The pain from the prolonged use of the Initial Lotus caused Lee to flinch for a moment, allowing Gaara to slip out of the armor unnoticed and due to the after effects of the technique, Lee was finding himself in trouble, now.

"What happened to him, Gai sensei?" asked Sakura, worried.

"The Lotus technique is a double-edged sword." said Gai

"That is a forbidden technique, because it causes so much stress to the body of the user that after its use he is in so much pain he can barely move."

Sakura and Naruto observed Lee with fear in their eyes. If he continued fighting that way...

But as soon as she thought about pleading to Lee to give up, he suddenly recovered his speed and energy.

"He is about to get back into the fight. The Lotus of the Leaf blooms twice." said Gai, with a slight grin.

"You didn't!" exclaimed Kakashi

"Yes, just like you though." answered Gai.

"So that genin kid.. will open the Celestial Gates..." asked Kakashi, worried

Naruto immediately sharpened his ears.

"Yes" admitted Gai.

"How many?"

"Five."

Kakashi looked shocked.

"Even if I lost respect for you, Gai, I must admit that I am impressed with your student."

"I did it in respect of his determination, and his indomitable willpower, so that he can accomplish a goal he is willing to give his life for."

Naruto was about to ask more information about the Gates, but fortunately Sakura managed to ask it first.

"What are those Celestial Gates you talked about?"

"It's the removal of certain limits in the chakra circulatory system. Lee had to open them in order to prepare for the Extreme Lotus."

"Yes", interrupted Kakashi, "In the inner coils where chakra flows there are eight special places, called Gates, where the chakra flow is highly regulated. Opening a gate allows a great deal of Chakra to flow through the coils, however those Gates have an important job on the body: they keep it from harming itself."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto, worried of being forced to use a self-destructing ability to use one of the very first basics of his family jutsu.

"The gates are in order: The Initial Gate, the Heal Gate, the Life Gate, the Harm Gate, the Limit Gate, the View Gate, the Wonder Gate and the Death Gate. Opening the Initial gate removes the limits that control muscle strength, allowing the body to use a strength up to 10 times the normal, but tearing yourself up, the Heal gate greatly increases healing rate and stamina but damages your immune system, and so on. Each gate is a different double-edged weapon, but they must be opened in the exact sequence, or the user will die because of the released chakra pressuring the still closed Gates around and busting them forcibly open."

Naruto shivered again.

"By opening the third Gate, Lee will enter the Extreme Lotus." continued Gai as soon as Kakashi stopped, "Opening all eight of the Gates will give the user a power well over that of any Kage, but at the end, the user will inevitably die..."

"Yes, that technique is a truly double-edged sword." said Kakashi

Naruto was stunned. He realized that he could never ask Kakashi about the book related to the Celestial Gates, now, seeing the open disapproval of Gai sensei teaching them to a genin. And he probably would end up having to hide the book from his sensei if he ever got his hands on it, until he memorized all he needed from it. "_But first, I will read again the scroll, with what they told us just now, I could piece together something useful and I could bounce any thought about it to mom so I don't do something incredibly stupid to myself._"

By opening one Gate after the other, Lee's skin became red and blood vessels burst open, but he moved so fast that very few people could even see him. Gaara's sand armor was demolished blow after blow, but just as Lee's muscles snapped, he completed the Extreme Lotus swirling Gaara in the air with the bandages in his forearms and trying to plant him into the ground. Gaara to save himself was forced to use his last sand, the gourd itself, to cushion the fatal impact. After the landing of both, Gaara raised one hand, summoning his sand to crush an arm and a leg of the unmoving Lee. But as he tried a follow-up fatal attack to kill the crippled boy, Gai, who shunshined down to save his unconscious student, stopped the sand with a sweep of his hand.

Gai's word touched most presents, however they didn't look to have sorted any kind effect on the Sand genin except confusion.

* * *

Naruto despaired when he overheard the medic-nins telling Gai about Lee most likely no longer being able to be a ninja. He knew his Cure spell was awfully inadequate to even begin healing damage such as what Lee did to himself, and he began fearing those very techniques were created to counteract similar damage from the main family jutsu...

"Naruto, are you all right?" asked Sakura.

"Y-yes, all right. I was... just worried about Freaky Eyebrows, that's all."

Sakura nodded, too. "He was really incredible. He encountered probably the worst kind of opponent for him, but still managed to almost defeat him twice."

"But he paid an high price for it.." concluded Naruto. For once, he couldn't feel truly happy for Lee's great performance, since it could cost him his dream...

However, he was sure one of the strongest White Jutsu may be able to help him. Promising himself to double his resolve in learning them, he returned his attention to the proctor, who was calling for freeing the combat area and calling down the last two genin. Chouji and that last sound guy, Dosu something. Unfortunately, Chouji lost really fast, he greatly underestimated his opponent and that guy apparently already knew about his best technique. Chouji probably used it when team 10 rescued them in the forest and the sound guy saw it, including figuring out how to get around it. That reminded him that he still had to hear a more complete "report" from Sakura about what happened then, other than 'Lee and team 10 saved us when that sound team attacked.'

After the short speech of the old man Hokage and the drawing of his own turn in the third exam (Against Neiji! The very first! YES!) he told the assembled genin that the actual third exam would be held in an arena one month from now. Naruto could only barely resist making an evil grin thinking about all the training he could do in a whole month with the help of the Shadow Clones. In a month's time, he was sure he would be ready to reduce Neiji to mince meat. He was also glad that it wouldn't be just the winner of the whole tournament to become a chunin. And the whole arena thing was the most perfect thing he could imagine for making Neiji humiliation as embarrassing as possible. He could literally squash him before not only his family, but thousands of people as well!

"_Hmmm... I think I'll get 'Akiko' to bet most my savings on my victory in the first match. I wouldn't mind a little extra pocket money to add to the sweet package of a bleeding black and blue Neiji, and since he is the 'genius' of the Hyuga Clan I'll get some very good odds! Sometimes it literally pays to be known as the dead last._"

Once they were free to go, after they were accompanied out of the Forest of Death, he returned home to leave his second family scroll in its hiding place. When he entered, though, he found one clone happily eating ramen.

"Who are you?" asked the true Naruto.

"Sheesh, Boss did you forget already? I was tasked to impersonate Akiko while you were at the exam!"

Naruto almost punched himself; in his excitement he forgot all about it. He was, however, surprised by how long the clone had lasted.

"Good job with Kiba, Boss, it was a really good fight! Now prepare yourself, I have a good deal of things to pass on to you."

Naruto braced himself as the clone before him dissipated. Apparently Akiko had already bought those chakra cards and tried one (damn), read a few more books on chakra manipulation, especially about genjutsu. He still wanted Iruka's lessons about it, but after that Scan practice he had an idea on how to send chakra construct on other people's coils, the base of all the genjutsu not born from a bloodline. Apparently the clone managed to last this long because it spent very little chakra and conserved it whenever it could by meditating. Still, it was running low, now, after almost 6 days. Summoning five clones he gave them a few jobs. One would continue being Akiko, one would make tags, to trade this time for training weights. If Fuzzy Eyebrows became so strong with them he didn't see any harm emulating him, just not to that degree! And an especially big NO to the spandex! The original would go slaughtering fishes, one would go visit Sasuke and if already possible, Lee and the last two clones would simply go read interesting books in the ninja section of the library.

* * *

Clone number 3, the one assigned to visit the hospital, was depressed by the fact that none of his friends were allowed to receive visitors. Seeing Kakashi sensei just returning from the inside of the hospital, he latched onto him: "Kakashi-sensei, how is Sasuke?"

"He will be well, but now is still unconscious. And for your next question... make it your next two questions, the seal master will come to your house tomorrow morning, as apparently he is occupied right now, and I found someone to train you for this month."

"Eh? Someone? You won't teach me?" asked the clone, dejected.

"Don't say that, Naruto. He is even better than me at teaching!"

_What teaching?_ Asked acidly the clone to himself, becoming really bitter at the though of being pawned off.

"... you are planning to teach Sasuke, isn't it?" said the clone, with suspicion in his eyes.

Kakashi clearly avoided his eyes

_I knew it._

"Well, he is here, I'll see you at the finals, Naruto!" said Kakashi, before disappearing.

Naruto turned around, and saw Ebisu looking at him.

"Well, since we already know each other, I'll just tell you what I'm going to teach you."

The clone nodded. Since he officially had been given permission by Kakashi sensei to instruct him, he could learn something good.

"Kakashi already informed me that you are taking lessons with Umino Iruka, your old academy instructor for remedial lessons, and I just came from meeting him. He will continue to fill up your most glaring holes up to genin level, and I'll get from there up. Your team leader also informed me that your chakra molding and control has noticeably become more efficient, and you are ready for high genin control exercises, so I'll begin immediately with water walking. After that, we'll check your elemental affinity and I'll teach you a few d-rank ninjutsu of that element..."

"Wind. I've already checked. I am a wind-nature elemental."

".. that's rare here in Konoha." said Ebisu, thoughtful. "Unfortunately, Wind and Lightning are two elements Konoha isn't well supplied with, in the high-rank level, at least."

The clone nodded. That would just mean he would make his own. He mentally added jutsu creation to the things to look for in the library.

"I'm also using the Shadow Clones to increase my training time. In fact the original Naruto right now is training in the woods outside Konoha. He'll learn everything I know after I disappear. Another two clones are in the library right now to study books in the ninja section."

Ebisu looked truly impressed, took his notebook and made a few corrections.

"Can you use ninjutsu?" Catching the mischievous eyes of the clone he hastily added: "I mean jutsu harder than a henge!"

The clone created a shadow clone beside himself, slightly pouting.

"Unlike the original I can't regenerate chakra, so creating a Shadow Clone halves my lifespan. Still, I can use all the jutsu the Boss knows until I run out of energy and I have enough chakra for a few hours still."

"Well, since there are two of you, now, one of you will go to the library and... " he began writing a note. "Will fetch this book." he passed the note with his name and Naruto's both in a permission slip to check out a book named Introduction to wind-natured jutsu.

"The other one will fetch the original, because a Shadow Clone will likely dissipate in the early stages of learning Water Walking. Tell him to meet me at the hot springs near the east gate in 15 minutes." The two clones nodded, one dissipating himself, the other hurrying to the library. Even if his new teacher was a closet pervert, he WAS a qualified teacher, assigned by the Third to teach his grandson Konohamaru and he promised to teach him in a few days what Kakashi should have taught him months ago. And from what Ebisu-sensei told him, Kakashi-sensei KNEW what his problems were, but didn't even bother to tell him himself. At least he left him with a competent teacher, just like he said before fleeing, a better teacher than him. Not that it wouldn't take much. He would just have to teach him a couple things and he would surpass Kakashi.

A though, however stopped him. If Kakashi sensei was so neglectful of one of the students who passed the tests, what would stop him about completely forgetting about Sakura-chan?

He promised himself to check on Sakura-chan, tomorrow, and see if Kakashi-sensei had at least spoken to her.

* * *

The original Naruto was cutting up fishes at a rapid pace. Knowing approximatively the time needed for the soul to leave the body, he managed to check up on 4 at the same time. His following ability has arrived to around 18 seconds, and he had caught most of the movement patterns. It was the final breakthrough when he decided to guess the final movement of this soul and touched a really cold... "barrier" if he could call it that. He managed to sense the soul easily flow through and he finally guessed his portion of the training was about to end. Repeating his success with the next 2 fishes, he made the next step in the training, and preceded the soul to the Farplane Barrier as soon as the soul started its departure. He reached it in less than a second, while the soul took almost 20 to reach it. Giddy, he collected a bit more White Chakra and prodded the Farplane barrier. Suddenly he could feel it, a pyrefly left the Farplane barrier and followed his White Chakra trail out of the fish. As soon as it "reached" the fish along that weird "direction" he could see the pyrefly leaving the body, in the visible spectrum. It was really pretty, just like all the others, and somehow, he felt it was under his command.

-_Good job, Naruto-chan_-

"Mom?" he asked, surprised. He could actually sense his mother's presence nearing and connecting to the pyrefly. He also sensed that the little energy he gave to that pyrefly would keep it here for just a dozen minutes before running out.

-_I see you managed to summon your first pyrefly._-

"I.. I have a lot to tell you, actually! I just passed the second test of the chunin exam! And in a month I will humiliate the genius of the Hyuga Clan!!"

-_The Hyuga, huh? Are they still so completely stiff?_-

"Uh, no. Hinata is nice, but a little weird. But her cousin is, and he almost killed her just for spite!"

Kushina seemed to think a little, then asked: -_Tell me of yourself, Naruto-chan. Even if this pyrefly disappears we can continue this evening inside the seal._-

Naruto nodded then he proceeded to enthusiastically give Kushina the highlights of his life. If Naruto could see her facial expressions, he probably would have gone in hiding in a very deep place to avoid the ground zero of her rage against what once was her beloved village.

Sensing the exhaustion of his White Chakra, he said: "And this is how I managed to graduate. Ah, the rest will have to wait, mom. The pyrefly is about to vanish."

-_Y-yes, I'll see you this night, honey... and... I'm sorry again for leaving you all alone..._-

Naruto nodded, and left. He was tired, had more fish that he could eat and had mastered this exercise, so he decided to call it a day. He would give some to Iruka sensei as a thank you for his lessons, hoping he wouldn't inquire on why they were all headless...

* * *

Akiko bowed to the shopkeeper while she bought a little more rice to go with all those fishes the true Naruto was catching right now. Ramen, unfortunately, didn't taste right with roasted fish and he didn't know any other fish recipe. He contemplated a fish ramen, but he wasn't a genius chef like Ichiraku and wouldn't dare to desecrate ramen by doing experiments with it. Still, it was nice being Akiko, especially on how townspeople were nice to her. However, her mission today was to get friendly with an older leaf genin who lost in the first exam, because as soon as she Scanned him, for practice, curiosity and information gathering, she discovered that the guy had access to the original documents regarding the clans in Konoha, working in the Tower as a small-time administrator-nin as some kind of punishment. She wanted, obviously, to get her hands on the Uzumaki register and see her father's name. Technically, if Naruto had been listed as a member of that clan she wouldn't have had any trouble getting it, but everyone assumed her last name had been assigned to her by the Third as a trick to sway the people's attention from the fox reincarnated...

"_Damn, it's getting easier to think of myself as a girl when I wear Akiko's form. I hope this is just an effect of a good infiltration talent or I may get worried..._"

Getting to know the guy was easy, she simply had to ask him about the history of Konoha, and just as her Scan revealed, his hidden passion left the two of them to chat about her village for a couple hours. She learned a great deal, too, so it wasn't wasted time and he clearly could see that the guy wasn't interested in an underdeveloped twelve-year-old girl, so he was safe, too.

She just hoped the Boss would forgive her for getting his rice a little late...

* * *

OMAKE:

"Uh... what did you do to get yourself assigned to the Archives, Moroboshi Ataru-sempai?" asked Akiko to the older teen beside her.

The boy, with a lecherous look in his eyes, simply told: "I stole Hokage-sama crystal ball while I was in a cleaning mission detail in the tower, and used it to spy on the women's bath, the women's changing rooms, the women's toilets, a few private home's showers and a few couples in the love hotels before I was caught!"

"......... how......but... why... such....such a light punishment for all that?????"

"Actually, the punishment was for not sharing it with Hokage-sama himself..."

"..........die...PERVERT!!!!"

Akiko immediately used her Harem no Jutsu to kill the pervert from blood loss, accidentally using an adult version of herself. After stabbing the pervert's body some more with a sharp kunai, she departed to inflict the same punishment to the old man. She failed to see, however, the amazed and lecherous looks of the bystanders...

Unfortunately, that particular scene grew with the retelling, and caused the birth of the Akiko fan club, founded by all the people who watched the scene....


	9. A Super Pervert?

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 9: A Super Pervert?

by Chronodt

Naruto, the true one, arrived at the hot springs a few minutes before Ebisu sensei, just a few minutes after his clone's memory told him of the appointment. He had just given Iruka sensei his surplus fishes and was planing to relax a bit by reading the second half of the first scroll, but true training from the closet pervert was too tempting to resist.

"Alright, Naruto." began Ebisu, as soon as he arrived. "The beginning stage of water walking is traditionally done in a similar environment." Naruto was a little disbelieving, but still listened with attention.

"Now, unlike Tree Walking, where you just have to place a fixed amount of chakra on your feet..." he walked near the hottest pool, "... to walk on water you must constantly emit it from your feet in such a way to create a surface that can hold your weight." he stepped on the VERY hot water and stood in it. "Hot water is both slightly easier to affect with this technique and an incredible incentive for success" said the teacher with a smirk.

Naruto nodded and started gathering his chakra on his feet. Wishing to avoid a boiling hot bath he carefully stepped on the water, where he promptly fell in it. "HOT!!" he yelled, jumping out.

Ebisu didn't help by laughing, even if only a little.

"As you can see, just like in Tree Walking, only the right amount of chakra will allow you to remain stable on the surface; the difference is that this time it has to be a constant flow instead of a constant amount. An increased difficulty of this exercise is that variation of mass, center of gravity or movement alter the distribution of weight on your feet and require intuitive readjustment of that same flow. You will have to practice until you are able to fight on water as well as you fight on the ground. Only then you'll have this skill mastered."

Naruto nodded. He had never had an exercise explained so well, even if he had a little trouble understanding things like center of gravity and such, but it was clear after he said that he had to fight while doing all this without having to think about it.

"After you manage to stay on top of the water, you can use clones to perfect the skill and we'll do taijutsu training. Iruka told me that your form is horrible but the academy stile doesn't suit you. I am, I'm afraid, not very knowledgeable about a taijutsu style that would suit your build and style. I will have to ask Maito Gai about it, but in the meantime I'll let Iruka correct your basic punches and kicks."

Naruto shivered, and hoped Gai's suggestions didn't include green spandex. However he was intrigued, because apparently Ebisu was allowed to ask others for training tips if not outright training for his benefit. That could be of enormous benefit to his training, and he almost hoped Kakashi could train Sasuke for more than a single month.

Naruto trained for an hour, falling dozen of times in the scalding water until he decided to remove his jumpsuit, when he heard a familiar giggle.

There, just like a couple weeks ago, there was the same pervert he sent to the hospital to "test" his blood seal, still peeping on the female half of the spring. Ebisu followed his gaze and was appalled by this man's behavior, in such a public place, too!

"W-what a shameful display, sir!" yelled Ebisu, hurriedly walking to confront the man. "You should be.... AAARGH!"

He didn't finish the phrase, because as soon as he started talking, the man made a few handseals and a giant toad appeared below him. The toad shot out with its tongue and knocked out his teacher.

"Keep quiet, you don't want me to get caught, do you?" said the old man.

Naruto was surprised Ebisu lost. Well, not really, considering how easily he lost to his Harem no Jutsu he wasn't THAT strong, but still he was a jonin.

"Hey, you, damn pervert!" asked Naruto, posing himself before the man."Who the hell are you? And what's with that frog?"

The damn pervert looked happy, actually HAPPY to be asked for his name. And he did a very weird pose, too!

"Thanks for asking, kid! I am THE Toad Hermit of Mt. Myobokugama, the Gama-Sennin! Remember it!"

"What the hell are you talking about, Ero-Sennin! You disabled my teacher!"

"He was in the way of my research!" said the man, with a smug face.

"Research?" he asked, confused. All he saw was the man peeping as a common pervert! Even twice!

"Yes, I am the writer of this literary masterpiece!" he extracted a very familiar orange book from his pocket. Naruto instantly recognized it.

"That is...", words could not come out to express the amount of indignation he felt right in that moment.

"Oh, you heard of it, then! They get younger every day!" said the old pervert, pleased.

"That is the worst trash book ever seen in Konoha, that's what I heard!" And it was true. Akiko heard plenty of such rumors from housewives, shopkeepers and kunoichi. Strangely, most men instead talked about it as a holy book. He himself leaned toward the girl's opinion, seeing all the faithful readers were perverts, including Kakashi sensei and the Hokage himself.

And most of them had fallen for his Oiroke no Jutsu at least once.

The man seemed to lose his good humor really fast at that. "You are evidently too young to understand the beauty of this kind of literature, kid!"

"What the hell do you intend with literature, old man! If your research comes from spying naked girls you are seriously committing wagonloads of crimes just to write that trash!"

"You fool! I'm really serious about my books and I want the highest quality in my works!"

"That is just an excuse to peep! And what about him?? He was supposed to teach me, you know!"

"Teach you? That water walking you were doing?"

"Yes. But since you knocked him out, you'll take his place!"

"Are you kidding, brat? Why should I do it?"

"Uhh... " Naruto was out of ideas. Normally he WOULD have used Oiroke no Jutsu to convince this pervert to help him, but after a few days as Akiko and being aware of boys' stares he wasn't sure he could bring himself to use it as a bribe, especially with this kind of pervert.

Then the man suddenly seemed to recognize the orange jumpsuit on the floor.

"YOU! It was you, you damn brat, wasn't it?" yelled the pervert.

Naruto was worried, he had a crazed expression on his face....

"Well, I must thank you, your jutsu inspired me in one of the greatest scenes my mind ever conceived!"

Naruto actually felt dirty after hearing that...

"As a thank you, I will actually oversee your training, for today only!"

"Oh, thank you!" and he mentally added: "_Yes, thank you Ero-Sennin!_"

As he resumed his training, he again fell a few times, but he didn't notice that the old pervert was looking with real interest his stomach. He would have been creeped out if he did...

"_So that is truly Minato's son... he really looks like him, too._"

As soon as Naruto fell again in the water, he was able to get a better look at the seal.

"Kid, come here a moment, and mold a little chakra, please." Naruto shrugged his shoulders a moment, and did as asked. He saw the man examine the seal attentively.

"Are you a Seal Master. Ero Sennin?" he asked, curious.

The old pervert answered: "I'm surprised kids today don't know about me, I thought you knew." he returned in his pose: "I'm the legendary ninja, Jiraya-sama! Seal Master, Toad Hermit and a Super Pervert, irresistible to women everywhere!"

Naruto sweatdropped at the self-declared Super Pervert.

"So can you remove Orochimaru's Five element Seal?"

"You know about it?" asked a very surprised Jiraya.  
"I'm studying seals, but of that one I just know its name and that is restraining a defensive mechanism of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal."

Jiraya looked with a little more attention to the brat. He was feeling a strong sense of deja-vu as he looked at him. Change his clothing, his hairstyle and remove those whiskers and he had a Minato just out of the academy, including his never ending energy, his hyperactive ways and his interest in seals. Then he looked at the seal itself, and studied it with a critical eye. What he saw... was impossible. Naruto should be dead minutes after the sealing with this seal, Minato could not have been such an idiot to place a seal that forcibly mixed a human chakra with youki...

However minutes passed, and he could find nothing that would stop that mixing in that seal. Instead he found a control mechanism, inaccessible from the outside without the Key in his possession, to regulate the mixing rate.

"How can he be alive... with such a seal?" he asked, worriedly.

Naruto sweated, and not from the heat.

"Uh... I.. er..." started Naruto. He felt trapped. If this man started thinking the fox took over it was better to tell him about his bloodline... but...

"Kushina... there is no other explanation. He inherited her bloodline, but that means.."

Naruto realized he was so shocked he had simply thought aloud, not really asking questions. However that meant this Jiraya was one of those high-ranked ninja who knew of his mother's bloodline.

Jiraya exploded in a wide smile, then he seemed to remember where he was, and asked Naruto: "How far along?"

"It has just three tails left, Ero-Sennin, and recently I found instruction on how to keep the seal at the optimal performance. It has no more than six month left. Probably even less than that."

Jiraya was actually smiling, a serious, but relieved smile.

"So you know about her, too?" asked Jiraya.

"I have two of the family scrolls and I can probably find the rest." said Naruto, unwilling to disclose everything.

"Well, brat, I hope that you are ready, because since tomorrow, you are my disciple. Now let me get rid of that seal and continue with water walking. About that, you are doing good, you just need practice. After we are done here I'll have to see the Hokage. And... NEVER speak about the true purpose of the seal until it disappears, to ANYONE, am I clear?"

"Clear... uh.. Ero-sensei?"

"Damn brat!" his fingers lighted with chakra and he hit Naruto right in the seal. Naruto believed the unsealing could have been done a little more gently but he evidently didn't like that last Ero-Sensei comment. Unsealing done, the pervert left the premise, probably to the benefit of the female population in the hot springs.

"_So the Third Hokage himself didn't know?_" asked Naruto to himself, "_Or just that pervert?_"

"ARGH! I forgot to ask him if he knew my father!" cried Naruto, before returning to his work.

In the middle of all that, Ebisu continued to sleep undisturbed.

* * *

Akiko was quietly conversing with the young genin-archivist about the last Shinobi War, trying to keep away from personal information. She realized, by talking with this genin, that even the reserve corp did missions, once in a while. The lowest of D ranks, because of the lack of supervision, but missions nonetheless. She had to either abandon her cover before being discovered as some kind of spy, or actually improve it, making it real with the help of Ebisu, Iruka or the Hokage. However if the Hokage was informed of it, he would make inaccessible to her the one information she was actually looking for, so in a bout of awesome stubbornness, she decided she would present her identity to the Hokage with a successful infiltration and espionage mission in her belt: infiltrate his own tower: a self-assigned B rank mission to infiltrate the Clan Archives and find out the name of the husband of Kushina Uzumaki. It even sounded official.

Saying goodbye to the other genin, Akiko left to return home, her mission clear, and the first step done. She had a "date" tomorrow with the genin-Archivist Yasha Horiki, to discuss a little more about the history of the Clans of Konoha!

* * *

Naruto, (again, the original one) after drying himself off, fell into the bed, completely tired. He finally managed to stand in the water for 5 minutes, if the water was completely still and he kept his concentration. Ebisu, who regained consciousness a couple hours after the pervert left, said he was good enough that he could leave the mastering of the technique to the clones, now. Since he was too tired to continue, he guessed a clone would be, too, so he simply left to return home. Once he was back, he briefly nodded to the clones and took the first family scroll, reading that second half before contacting his mother and going to bed. What once was the 'Akiko clone' (now in his natural shape) just entered with the rice and began preparing his dinner. The true Naruto, instead did not even pay attention to the good smells coming from the kitchen, his eyes were glued to the scroll, completely shocked...

"_The massive summoning of pyreflyes require the opening of the death gate??????_"

He read again.

Yep.

The Death Gate is the door from the chakra circulatory system to the Farplane.

Upon the death of a living creature, the chakra leaked away from the coils slowly opens the Gates in sequence, ending with obviously the Death Gate. From there the soul can leave the body and reach the Farplane...

He looked in the document, some way to disprove what he read, but he found a single passage, instead: "_The opening of the Death Gate is, for most human, a suicide endeavor. Impossible to even manage unless all the previous seven Gates are already open and drained, however our White Chakra, thanks to its incredible healing properties, allows us to do it without excessive dangers to our bodies or souls. The ordered opening of the Celestial gates, called the Warrior Path, causes the chakra stored in the gates themselves to be released in the inner coils, together with both the beneficial and harmful effects of the release of the limit imposed by the Gate itself. This normally allows the body to increase its combat power enormously, at great damage to the user's health. Unfortunately our bloodline precludes us from getting the true benefit of this path, because the innate healing properties of White Chakra subsides both advantages and disadvantages of the opening of the Gates. An ordinary person opening the Initial Gate would receive a tenfold increase in muscle strength and would tear them up very easily, causing great muscular pain for several minutes and possible heavy damage to many muscle groups. Our White Chakra would somehow replace the limiting effect of the gate itself, leaving us with just a modest increase in muscle strength (up to about double strength) for a very short time (less than a second), with little to no damage to muscles, easily repaired in a few seconds if needed. The only true advantage of opening the Initial Gate for our Clan is the freeing of a great amount of Chakra stored in reserve in the Gate. The way of the Lotus, as it is known in Konoha, is forever precluded to our Clan._"

"Damn, so I cannot learn Freaky Eyebrow's technique even if I work really hard! My body simply cannot do it. Well, that is what he must feel about ninjutsu and genjutsu, so I guess it is a tiny bit fair."

"_Inversely, the Way of the Summoner is where our bodies excel in the control of the Celestial Gates. By opening first the Death Gate instead of the Initial Gate, the influx of chakra trapped inside the Gate has no way of entering the inner coils, but our White Chakra can guide it to the Farplane instead, where it will form a bridge, allowing a swarm of Pyreflyes to be summoned to the real world. Be aware that allowing the open Death Gate to access the inner coils, by opening all of the Celestial Gates, will still eventually cause the death of the user."_

"Well.. good to know." said Naruto.

"_Without White Chakra, the chakra of the opened Death Gate, without a way to relieve pressure in the inner coils, would bust out the heart of the user, causing a quick but painful death. This known fact is often used by the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist, in their famous heart death strikes._"

"Wow... awesome!" said an awed Naruto. Even if he could not use the Lotus, he could still get some use from those Gates. And he apparently could survive... wait a moment. A Hyuga Death blow in the heart? "HINATA!" he yelled, surprising the clones.

He calmed down, remembering that he injected White Chakra in her heart, just before medic-nins swarmed her, so she probably was safe now. But that meant that Neiji REALLY wanted to kill her! It was a deliberate mortal blow! His fury against Neiji reached an unknown level, to the point where he started feeling youki seep into his coils, before he was knocked out by his own clones.

* * *

After a 30-minutes rant in the seal's mixing chamber, an amused Kushina finally got to ask:  
-_What's wrong, Naruto-chan?_-

"Neiji is what's wrong, mom!" snarled Naruto. "I've been reading the second half of the scroll, since Super Freaky Eyebrows and Kakashi sensei told us about the Gates. And I read that the Hyuga are known to hit tenketsu over the heart to force open the Death Gate of the victim, causing them a 'quick but painful death'."

-_Yes, it's true._-

"That ass, Neiji, my first opponent in the finals, used THAT on HIS COUSIN HINATA! Probably the only decent Hyuga from what I've heard around! And just because she is considered a failure by her clan!"

-_How... how is she?_-

"I don't know, but I haven't heard of a funeral, so I hope she's alive. I managed to use a Cure on her as soon as I could right in her heart. I felt her breathing get better, and soon after that, medic-nins got to her."

-_That's good, Naruto-chan. You probably saved her life, you know?_-

"Yeah, I read about the pressure and the White Chakra..."

-_However.. how come your jonin sensei decided to explain to you the Celestial Gates?_-

"Ah, right. Let me finish my story, so we can arrive to that point."

-_Oh, yes!_-

Naruto spent the next hour repeating, with just a few minor embellishments, the events since his strange graduation up until his meeting with Jiraya.

-_I guess there is no longer a true need of that book. You have already witnessed its self-destructive potential first hand. I still want you to read it, though, so get one as soon as you can._-

"I need to know also how can I fare against the Gentle Fist, and the other Konoha finalists if you know anything about their clans."

-_The most problematic for you would probably be the Aburame kid._-

"Uh? Shino? Why?"

-_Uh.. the kikai bugs LOVE our chakra... using a White Jutsu on an Aburame is like giving them a soldier pill. Draining it causes the same effect, too. Luckily the fox's seal will protect your chakra until you can learn how to seal it yourself, if needed._-

Naruto shivered at the idea of being swarmed by amorous over-energetic kikai bugs.

-_On the other hand, if you are ever paired with one, you can increase his/her power by using a simple member of the Cure jutsu family on him/her._-

That was good to know.

-_For the Hyuga you will need to learn the Esuna no Jutsu, to purify the tenketsu of your body if they get clogged, but organ damage can only be quickly repaired by the jonin level White jutsu, so be careful and don't get caught. About the Kaiten, if the kid knows it, I would suggest to master the first scroll completely._-

"Uh.. Why?"

-_So you can gain access to the Farplane Guardians. In particular I would suggest you to contact and summon Carbuncle, the Shield Guardian. You won't find anyone who comes close to his abilities with barriers and shields. He can make and, if he gets enough power, BREAK them easily._-

Naruto was awed. With THOSE abilities at his disposal he could actually shame Neiji's pride, his Gentle Fist mastery! He would probably make an enemy of the whole Clan, but he didn't care. A Clan that treated his own as they treated Hinata didn't deserve his respect.

-_About the other Konoha kids from clans you may face in the exam, our bloodline isn't particularly __effective or ineffective. The sharingan can't copy them, so don't worry about holding back on the White Jutsu if you need them. However you'll have to warn him to not try to copy your summoning technique, because if he foolishly tried to open the Death Gate..._-

Naruto shivered, thinking back to what he read in the scroll.

"So.. uh... how do I open the Gates?"

-_Yes, Naruto-chan, I'll teach you, but first I must tell you a few things that I noticed in your life story. The first is about how you constantly use irritating nicknames for people you like, and the second... well, you need to know it since you are old enough. You may have heard about it, it is often referred to as 'the birds and the bees'..._-

* * *

"Are you sure about it, Jiraya?" asked the Hokage. He had dismissed the ANBU a few moments after they begun talking, due to the secrecy of the topic.

"Yes, I'm sure about it. That damn brat didn't tell us anything about what the seal would do to the fox. We assumed it would simply keep it locked up."

"It is a great relief hearing about it, actually." said the aged Hokage, feeling years younger, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"It is not all a good news, however. There is a group of S-rank missing nin, called the Akatsuki. I don't know their final plan or many of their members, but I know they want the Biju and travel in groups of 2. If they were to discover this..."

"...yes, I understand."

"Naruto may be in danger even after the death of the fox. They are likely to not believe that the strongest of the Biju has been killed by a kid. Luckily they will need him alive. Unluckily, once they discover the truth, he will no longer be useful."

The Hokage lit his pipe, thinking. "Jiraya, are you willing to train Naruto after the exams? He will need to protect himself from them fast, since he will not be able to access the demon's youki for long."

"You are right, sensei. I will take him with me. Three years of intensive training should be enough to keep him alive long enough to escape if he meets one or two Akatsuki members."

The Hokage sighed, compiled and signed an Apprenticeship permission for Uzumaki Naruto to Jiraya of the Sannin.

"Here it is, Jiraya. I'm entrusting his safety to you."

Jiraya could only nod, before poofing away in a cloud of smoke.


	10. Training regime

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 10: Training regime

by Chronodt

Naruto waited outside Sakura's house. A clone of him, actually, the true one has been kidnapped by Jiraya at the crack of dawn, barely giving him time to get dressed and eat a few cereals. The pervert even refused to let him eat instant ramen, 'because it would take too long to cook'. And after he saw him create ten Shadow Clones, he hijacked most of them to give them specific jobs. He sent a couple to Ebisu sensei, one to read Ebisu's book on the wind element jutsu, one to do water walking, one to Iruka to do basic punching and kicking, henged as an academy kid in Iruka's morning class, one to do target training, one to revise ALL chakra control exercises he knows (excluding water walking) and left the other three to do whatever Naruto created them for. One went out as Akiko, one continued practicing seals and the last was here. He actually didn't protest. A quick Scan on the pervert showed him he was actually the real deal. He was probably stronger than the Hokage himself, and by a good margin! He was a toad summoner (well.... being the Toad Hermit and his summoning one before him was a big clue) he could power himself up even beyond the scanned level by using something called "Sage Mode" and his favorite jutsu were so numerous that the Scan just got lost after the first few. He had a natural Water affinity, and acquired Earth and Fire as secondary. Even Lightning and Wind were no slouch, just not at the level of the others. So this was a Kage-level ninja... he is actually more than impressive!

Yesterday's … Talk with mom has been really... enlightening. He couldn't remember ever being so embarrassed. At first he though mom was … no he couldn't think about it. Not about her. He went red just by remembering. She also explained that most girls his age were more interested in the 'mature' kind of boy because as girls they grew up sooner. And that Sakura-chan didn't really like Sasuke per se, she probably liked a pedestal she and the other girls built of a "Sasuke Uchiha" and worshiped that icon. Naruto still didn't completely understand it. Mom even tried to explain that what he was feeling for Sakura was something like that, too. He could scarcely believe it, but mom said it...

While waiting for Sakura to wake up, he made a mental catalog of his interactions with the pink-haired girl. Even if it pained him, he realized his mom was right. He had built a "perfect Sakura" in his mind and ignored every hint or even every proof that would deviate from that image. He had a crush on a girl who didn't really exist, and that more than everything hurt him.

With new resolve, he decided to get to know the TRUE Sakura, while trying to ignore Sakura's obsession, remembering that she, too, was loving a boy who didn't truly exist.

The first step in getting to know the true Sakura-chan was helping her get training, or even accompanying her to see Sasuke at the hospital. He just would add visiting Lee and Hinata if she didn't want to leave the Uchiha. Chouji wasn't hurt very much and was probably already home.

Two hours later, Sakura finally left and Naruto showed himself, hailing her.

"Sakura-chan, good morning."

"Naruto...what are you doing here?" she didn't look too annoyed, but evidently wasn't in a good mood either.

"Yesterday, Kakashi sensei left me to a jonin to train for the finals, but I wanted to be sure he left you something to do. I wouldn't put past him to completely forget about you..."

Sakura seemed surprised by his thoughtfulness, and said: "Kakashi left me a couple scrolls for a training regime..."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. _Just scrolls? She needs help in the physical department and she needs to see with her eyes what a true training regime is. Better take her to Ebisu sensei._

Naruto then said: "Come with me, I'm taking you to Ebisu sensei. Scrolls can't compare to actual instruction in what you need."

Sakura started to protest, since Naruto was actually offering to share his instructor, but he seemed to read her mind and said: "Actually, I'm no longer mainly training with him. Yesterday, while I was training at the hot springs with Ebisu sensei, I met a self declared Super Pervert. Ebisu sensei tried to stop him, but was defeated in a second. He turned out to be Jiraya, one of the Densetsu no Sannin, one of the legendary three ninja, and he is a seal master. He..." he couldn't tell her about either his seal or the Oiroke, so he had to … twist the truth a little: "... he was a little impressed of my knowledge in seals, and this morning he kidnapped me from my bed at the crack of dawn and told me that the got the Hokage to give him permission to train me until the Finals."

Sakura was surprised. One of the Sannin was actually impressed with _Naruto_?

"You are a clone, aren't you?" said Sakura, connecting the dots.

"Yes, the Boss is now with that pervert." said Naruto. "And to give you an idea of how much a pervert he is, he is THE author of Sensei's orange books."

Sakura froze. One of the most renowned ninja of her village... wrote that smut?

"Just don't dare to copy him, Naruto!"

"Even complaining it's useless. I told him in his face that his book was trash and he was a pervert, but he simply told me I didn't understand art and replied that he wasn't "just" a pervert, but a _super_ pervert. He is actually proud of it, if you can believe it!"

Sakura was appalled.

"I hope becoming weird is not a requirement to rise to the higher ranks, or I will be content to remain a genin forever!" said Sakura, with heartfelt passion, remembering Kakashi and Gai.

Naruto thought about it for a while, and shuddered, too.

They talked of little things on the way to training ground 34, the training ground assigned to him by Ebisu sensei for their training. Sakura saw the jonin hard at work to guide a clone of Naruto through target practice and another practicing hand seals to become faster.

"Ebisu sensei, I brought to you a new student!" said Naruto

Ebisu turned and saw the two coming.

"Naruto... er..number three I guess, what do you mean a new student?"

"Well, since Jiraya-sensei took over my training, you are free to take a new student, aren't you?"

"Uh.. technically Kakashi didn't assign me Sakura..."

"Did Kakashi sensei ask you to train me specifically? Or did he ask your help for his team? Or his student? If so, Sakura-chan is one, too! Sakura has been left completely to herself for the whole month, you know!"

Ebisu thought back about the wording of Kakashi's request, and realized the brat was right. Kakashi's body language and tone implied Naruto's training, but...

"You are right, Kakashi DID tell me to train one of his students, and now due to the Hokage's orders you are Jiraya's. Your new teacher is just asking me to help a couple of your clones, and I can fulfill Kakashi's request by training Sakura."

Sakura smirked on that well thought sidestep of rules she just heard. She had been lucky, really. Naruto used his lucky streak of nailing Jiraya-sama for his own training to help her, too! And she was glad that Ebisu... sensei she guessed... was a good person to exploit that little loophole for her benefit.

"Let me see Kakashi's training regime and then I'll see your actual ability. Let's start with a simple spar...."

* * *

"Ok, brat, the warm-up is done." said Jiraya, to the real Naruto. After three hours of running, jumping, stretching, evading fireballs, traps and pits he … said this was just the warm-up??

"I want to see now how far you are in your family jutsus."

"Not very much, I'm afraid. I barely know Cure and Scan, and I perfected them just before or even during the preliminaries. I'm learning to open the Gates to summon the Guardians, but I just began yesterday with the theory behind it. The fox's seal is stopping almost all of my White Chakra."

Jiraya nodded. He was woefully behind what an Uzumaki of his age would be, but he couldn't refute the facts, he examined the seal himself. He was actually surprised the boy had any White Chakra at all in his system, baring an injury. Jiraya smirked, also, because he noted the brat's respect for him skyrocketed a few minutes after being woken up. Surely he used that Scan on him, and realized his magnificence.

"Ok, brat. There is nothing I can help you with your family jutsu, so you'll have to practice them in your own time. Since your clones are learning stuff for you, you'll learn something they cannot. I'll teach you how to summon toads."

Naruto was about to ask a question, but was silenced by Jiraya's gaze.

"Yes, yes, I know you have your family's summons, and they ARE good, I can tell you. But they don't preclude you from learning ninja summons as well, because they are summoned in a completely different way. They will add a great deal of versatility, because unlike your summons you can use them as messenger, scout and are great company as well."

The old pervert bit his hand, made a few handseals and slammed his hand on the ground, yelling "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A spider net of seals left his hand and with a poof of smoke a large toad appeared. He dropped a very large scroll from his mouth and waited. Jiraya took and opened the scroll before Naruto, who was a little apprehensive. His mother told him to sign this very contract if the pervert offered it, saying something along the lines of 'it is only right' or something similar. He hoped he wouldn't regret it later, but he decided to sign it. Following the old man's instructions, he bit his hand and signed the scroll with his blood, including his fingerprints. Giving back the scroll to the toad, Jiraya then showed him the handseals for the summoning jutsu.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" yelled Naruto, and in a poof of smoke a tadpole appeared.

"You SUCK!" yelled Jiraya. "Use more chakra, you damn brat! The summoning technique is done for brain dead people just like you with tanks of chakra and no control! You just have to pour in all you can!"

"Shut up Ero-Sennin! Do you usually pour all your chakra in a technique you know nothing about?" replied Naruto.  
"What do you mean 'know nothing about', brat! This is amply covered in the academy material!"

"Well, if you forgot about it, I'm the 'damn fox brat', you pervert! If it wasn't for Iruka-sensei I would have learned nothing in that poor excuse for an academy!"

Jiraya was actually surprised by that comeback, especially the rage behind it, but covered it well. It actually made sense, those stupids...

"So, now that you 'know', get to it!" yelled Jiraya.

Naruto repeated the jutsu, and this time the scroll bearer toad returned in a puff of smoke. Naruto actually swayed a little from the effort. Even if he didn't deplete his chakra reserves, he never expended that much chakra in a single go. He was used to divide it, yes, but not expel so much of it in a single burst.

"Again!" yelled Jiraya.

He complied, and for an hour he summoned smaller and smaller toads as his fatigue grew. The last one, who called himself Gamakichi, actually remained around after seeing his summoner faint dead before him.

"What happened to him, pervert?" asked Gamakichi. As the son of Gamabunta he heard plenty about Jiraya, all of it bad.

"He just overextended himself. It's good, though, soon his tenketsu and chakra pathways will be able to accommodate such a great expenditure of chakra to summon bigger toads. And don't call me pervert!"

Gamakichi didn't understand a thing (and ignored the rebuke), but he guessed it was senseless babble and ignored the pervert.

* * *

"Alright, Sakura. It's enough." Ebisu said, after the kunoichi hit the wooden post for the 300th time. "Kakashi's schedule was right to the spot, and his evaluation of your actual level very good. Still, I'd like to supervise your training, seeing that you have a number of smaller problems that this schedule won't cover. I'd like also for the two of you to learn more advanced traps since you are at a good level for a genin." he said, looking at a Naruto's clone, too. "For Sakura, I'd add a specialty that would make use of her perfect control, such as genjutsu or a medical-veterinary field, possibly both. While fixing your body and taijutsu will just get rid of a weakness, you have to cultivate strength, too. To round it, I'll also add a few low level elemental ninjutsu of your primary element."

"**Chaaa! Take that, Ino-pig!**" said Inner Sakura, imagining a beaten up Ino and a smiling Sasuke.

"Thank you for your words, sensei!" said Sakura, actually happy for some true suggestions for her career, and promising herself to look at those two fields to see if she had any talent in it.

* * *

Akiko was terrified.

After Mom's speech yesterday, she was really conscious of what a boy would want to do to her, even if she made herself as … well, not unattractive, but as invisible as she could be and still be in character.

Meeting with that Yasha guy maybe was a bad idea, but she wouldn't give up! She had a mission to do! After all, girls in infiltration mission had to do things like these or even worse (shudder) to complete them. She wouldn't expect any less from herself! And she had to hurry! The pervert surely told the Hokage that she knew of the Uzumaki Clan, and could be removing that scroll even now!

* * *

Naruto woke up near the river, hearing the usual giggle of his perverted sensei.

"So, you woke up, bro!" said a voice near his head.

A toad, that he barely remembered to have summoned just before falling exhausted, greeted him.

"Oh, hello. Sorry, I was really out of it when I summoned you. What's your name?"

"I'm Gamakichi, and the next time you call me, remember to give me some sweets!" after that he vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"So he stayed behind just to tell me that?" Naruto said, annoyed.

"Our sleeping beauty awakens." said Jiraya, still looking in his spyglass. "Are you ready to continue? I want you to summon until you are on the verge of chakra exhaustion!"

With a grumbled: "Yes, Ero-sensei" he resumed his summoning practice.

For hours he summoned toad after toad, getting to know a few of them, but this time, as soon as he started summoning the smaller toads, Jiraya told him that it was enough for the day. His lower chakra regenerating rate was starting to make itself known!

"Jiraya-sensei..." asked an exhausted Naruto, still on the ground. "What.. what can you tell me of my parents?"

Jiraya looked a little sad, but said: "I cannot tell you anything about your father, brat. But... since you already know about her, I will tell you about Kushina. The Hokage told me you were supposed to know of her identity only after you reached chunin rank. You would have known earlier if we thought you inherited her bloodline, too, but..."

Naruto laughed acidly for a moment. It always came back to the fox, the bane of his existence.

"I knew your mother since she was a newly minted jonin, so I don't know of her earlier days. She was fifteen, then. She was a real beauty, with red hairs and a body to die for and.. uh..." Jiraya suddenly felt a spike of killer intent from his pupil and decided to go on. "Er.. as I was saying, I had only a single mission with her, together with one of my old genin squad, that the world now knows as the Fourth Hokage, and Tsume Inuzuka, your preliminary opponent's mother. We were at war with Iwa back then, and we didn't have much time to fraternize. Not that she gave me the time of the day, that is." Naruto exhaled a relieved breath. Jiraya heard, but didn't say anything. "We had to get to know each other abilities, so Kushina actually shoved us a few of them, and I can say I was impressed..."

Jiraya lost himself in reminiscing that mission, and went on to recount the events, taking care of ever naming the Fourth Hokage or his relationship to Kushina

* * *

Akiko smiled, looking at the Clan Archives. That Yasha was a really gullible fellow, no wonder he was still a genin even at 18. He swallowed hook, line and sinker her story about her interest of the recent history of lost Clans, and even brought her in the Tower. The Archives were not true sensitive material, but still its access was supposed to be monitored. Still he didn't allow her to handle the scrolls, but that wasn't a problem. Except the fact that Kushina Uzumaki apparently was the last member ever recorded in her family scroll.

It was suspiciously convenient.

Waiting for a momentary distraction of the other genin, Akiko created a Shadow Clone and made him transform into an empty scroll. Akiko swiftly added it to the pile.

Examining a few more Clan Scroll to not arouse suspicion and taking a few notes (including the fact that Neiji's father was the identical twin of Hinata's and marked as deceased, as well as both mothers) they left the Archives. The clone, left behind, dispelled his henge, changing itself into Akiko. Best to lose just the cover if she had to abandon the mission.

Taking the Uzumaki scroll out again, she unrolled it, and examined the place where her and her father's name should be, and tried to use a bit of White Chakra in it.

"_Bingo!_" though Akiko. Two names appeared in the empty spaces, obviously one the son of the other. They were Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto. Unfortunately, no other Uzumaki were still living...

"_Namikaze Minato, eh? Why do I have the feeling I have already heard of him?_"

Akiko let the White Chakra go and the scroll returned to its previous state, then replaced the scroll in its rightful place and dispelled herself. Next step, discover the ninja history of her father!

* * *

Jiraya finished with his story. It was nothing exceptional, just a "minor" A-rank mission during wartime to get rid of a shipment of supplies for Iwa's front line ninja. However the pervert managed to catch his mother's quirks really fast, so he suspected that even if they had a single mission together, they got to know each other outside of them, too. He was also fascinated by the Fourth Hokage, even if the pervert never called him by name, just using "brat" just like he did with him. During the pervert's story he even got back the Archive's clone information, but he didn't dare to ask Jiraya about Namikaze Minato. So he asked about someone else.

"Ero-Sensei, the Fourth taught Kakashi sensei, right?"

"Yes, brat, and don't call me that!"

"So.. why did Kakashi sensei ignore me an Sakura, then? I'm sure the Fourth didn't ignore his teammates.."

Jiraya sighed, and appeared to search for an acceptable answer.

"Brat, you must realize that he is a human being, too. Your sensei is one of the greatest ninja of this village. He was a perfect ANBU commander, but has forgot what being a genin is, since he was promoted to chunin at 6."

"At... at six?" Naruto asked, shocked.

"Yes, he had been raised as a ninja from a very young age, and as an incredible prodigy he managed to become a ninja at 5. he became jonin at 13, and a few years later he entered in ANBU, becoming rapidly a captain. His only previous experiences with teaching is with his fellow ANBU, the elite, already well experienced ninja who know their strength and weaknesses, as well as how to address them without being told."

"So... he simply forgot that we are just beginners?"

"Yes, I think it is so. Sasuke is rather similar personality-wise to how he was at his age, and he too has been raised by some of the best ninja around. Kakashi probably sees a bit of himself in him, as well as something else, but this is a personal matter of Kakashi that I won't disclose. By giving you a personal teacher and Sakura a few scrolls is a very good first step for him."

"But not enough..." said Naruto, finally understanding a bit more about his lazy sensei.

"Yes, probably not enough for Sakura, but he DID give you a good teacher, and then I took over, brat, don't forget it!"

"Yes, Ero-sensei!"

"Damn brat!" said Jiraya, kicking Naruto in the river.

* * *

"What do you mean Sasuke is not here?" said Sakura to the nurse.

While going to the hospital, Naruto's clone and Sakura went to Ino's flower shop to get a few flowers for their friends. Ino decided to tag along.

"He left very early this morning with his teacher."

"So, a wasted trip... Hinata and Lee cannot receive visitors, yet, and my Sasuke-kun is away." said Ino.

"Your Sasuke kun, Ino-pig? Since when?" said Sakura.

"Since I first saw him, naturally, Forehead!"

Naruto silently withdrew. Better not get involved, thank you very much. He looked at the trees outside and wondered what Kakashi sensei was teaching Sasuke, right now...


	11. Summoning woes

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 11: Summoning woes

by Chronodt

Two weeks of training with the pervert made one thing very clear in Naruto's mind, (make that two, but he already knew that the man was a pervert of epic measure, he admitted it himself) he was a slave driver. When the damn pervert managed to get his mind out of the gutter, he was an implacable taskmaster and pounded both his mind and his body with exercise after exercise. Taijutsu, ninjutsu, even a few rudiments of genjutsu were drilled in him as if he wouldn't live until the next week if he stopped for a second.

And he enjoyed every second of it.

Ordinary people would have called him a masochist, but for the first time he had the (almost) undivided attention of a single teacher, hell bent on him actually learning the material, pounding him when he didn't before explaining him again in a more basic way, in between arguing with him when he was being a pervert and engaging in a shouting match of epic proportions. When he asked him for poisons for his training for the Esuna no Jutsu, he gave him a couple and showed him a ninja supply store where he could discreetly buy some, from the irritant to the highly deadly. After all that jutsu, like the Cure one, required mimicking his own natural White Chakra healing by building a construct. Its effect on the body was simply to attack and … smooth … all extraneous energies in the body. A healthy body worked like a well oiled machine, all energies perfectly balanced to create a harmonious, ordered flow of energies. Even injuries did not disturb that flow, because the energies that came into play were those of the body itself. Poisons, many diseases, Gentle Fist-injected chakra, genjutsu were all caused by extraneous element and the body recognized this fact by fighting against them, either with its immune system (diseases and poison) or by the flow of chakra (Gentle Fist and genjutsu effects, if left unchecked, will slowly dissipate in time) Esuna simply greatly sped up this process, purging the body of these invaders in a matter of a couple seconds. Naruto thought that the genjutsu dispelling effect of that jutsu was an immense relief. In his remedial lessons with Iruka sensei, he discovered that the seal didn't allow him to stop his chakra flow, so until the fox was dead, he couldn't free himself from genjutsu in the ordinary way, with the "Kai" dispel. With the help of Ebisu's suggested book, he also managed to master the Null Aero jutsu, a barrier of skin-tight White Chakra that would absorb and completely nullify a single wind based ninjutsu, of any magnitude. A pity it would not stack with itself to absorb more than one and didn't cover secondary damage either. He still stung where the rock sent by the pervert's wind jutsu hit him, while the chakra-laden wind was nullified by his shield. However, after having seen the success of the jutsu (despite that particular weakness) Jiraya-sensei sent him to get introductory books to the other 4 elements. Jiraya was even able to get him a scroll of a taijutsu style named Whirlwind Strike, that he claimed had been created by the Fourth Hokage himself for wind natured users. It wasn't really finished, but Jiraya said it would be an honor for him to complete it. And it was, because, even if he didn't tell anyone yet, he put together the pieces from ninja histories and discovered that the name of the Fourth Hokage was truly Namikaze Minato, his father. He was ready to both explode of happiness, cry away with rage for all the suffering he endured, beam with pride and feel oceans of shame. He also realized that the "few more enemies" argument that he dismissed previously wasn't that small of a matter. Probably his father made an enemy of the totality of Iwa and maybe even Kumo, its ally in the last war. If his enemies discovered his parentage before his village, he would become the most hated boy in THREE great ninja nations (his own, Iwa and Kumo, naturally), not a small feat, that!

Hinata, in the hospital, had to yet recover her consciousness, but she was recovering nicely. Lee, instead, despite orders, could be seen training. His mother told him that because of the bone fragments in the spine, amongst the White Jutsu only a jonin level one, Regenerate, could help him now. Even his mother told him that he would require years of practice without the seal to manage to use that one.

Sakura, together with Naruto, quickly completed Ebisu's lessons on genin-to-chunin level traps, and she managed to pick up several genjutsu, which she became very proficient with, and an introductory book to medical jutsu, that she was avidly reading up. Ebisu complimented her rapid progress on both fields.

Akiko had completed her mission with complete success, and was writing her "report for the Hokage" right now, including holes in the Tower security she found. Not big ones, but still...

Naruto's remedial lessons, after the very basic of taijutsu, started to cover basic genjutsu, stealth and tracking. He even had to put away his jumpsuit after years of faithful service, but after his mother's nagging and Iruka's insistence he decided to indulge them and picked up a dark orange and black jacket, with a black hood to cover his blond hair when needed, normally kept inside to not provide leverage to an enemy. Under that he had a blood red shirt, and dark brown, almost black ninja pants.

His mother told him that he finally _looked_ like a ninja. Iruka agreed, and so did everyone else. A pity there was so little orange in it.

* * *

-_Alright, Naruto-chan, now open it!_- said Kushina through the floating pyrefly. Since today's training was important, Naruto had dismissed all clones.

He was sitting in his usual fishing spot, only this time he had a dead rabbit on the fire. Since now he was able to reach the Farplane in a single attempt, he wanted something more substantial to eat than a single fish. And training to open the Celestial Gates could only done in the real world.

A powerful influx of Chakra, united to a very brief sense of strength accompanied his very first opening of the Initial Gate. Being the safest of the two Gates he was allowed to open as first, it was the logical choice. However, the chakra that filled him, was almost all White Chakra!

"It... feels wonderful, mom. I can feel the White Chakra flow in all my body for the first time without that damn youki!"

-_Yes, the seal was designed by our ancestors, after all. They would have wanted to let their children still able to summon or use family jutsu in an emergency. The Gates get first priority to the White Chakra. They still get plenty of ordinary one, though. Without that safety measure, trying to open the Death Gate would be suicidal for you._-

"The flow stopped, now." said Naruto, flexing his arms, crafting a couple Cure structures and releasing them.

-_A Gate will need around an hour after it has been closed again to refill itself, and the seal will reduce the mixing rate to compensate the amount of White Chakra going in it._-

"I don't want to waste the chakra I got from the Gate, I'm trying to summon the strongest toad I can."

-_Alright, try to get Gamabunta here. Even if he cannot hear me it will be nice seeing him again._-

"Hmmm... I'll get Gamakichi here, first, so he can tell me his father's mood."

With a few handseals, Gamakichi appeared in a puff of smoke. Used to the little toad, he gave him a few candies, before asking: "'Kichi, how is your old man? I want to try to summon him in a few moments."

Gamakichi looked at Naruto, especially how he was glowing with chakra, and said: "Go ahead, 'Ruto, he is looking forward to meeting you, as long as Jiraya is not around."

"It's good, then I go. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" yelled Naruto, and with a colossal bout of smoke, appeared Gamabunta, the Boss of the Toad Summons.

"Hello, old man." said Gamakichi

"Good morning, Gamabunta-sama" said Naruto, after the watchful... "eyes".. of his mother. It took a really LONG lecture on the importance of proper respect term and a threat of no more family scrolls for at least six months to get him to listen to what all his teachers tried and failed to make him understand about manners. Kushina tolerated Naruto's disrespect with Jiraya because... well, because sincerely that man actually deserved it, but she put her foot down on everyone else, especially the Hokage. Since she had contact with her son again, she would make sure he was a civilized human being and no longer a screaming monkey, even if sometimes she despaired on making him do that transition. Luckily most of their teachers gave credit to Iruka for his improvement, while Iruka gave it to Jiraya, being both a legendary figure and never actually having met the man.

"Ah, Naruto, good to see you finally managed to summon me, and without that pervert around. I was actually looking forward to meeting you. It is a pity you are not old enough to go drinking together."

"Yes, Gamabunta-sama. However, I WILL get older, with time!"

"Hahahaha, well said, brat! I will look forward to it. Gamakichi, please return before dinnertime, this time!"

"Ok, old man!" answered the small toad on Naruto's head.

Gamabunta left the area with a giant smoke explosion.

"So, 'Kichi, what game do you wish to play today?"

-_Naruto..._-

"Oh, Mom, I used almost all my chakra to summon the boss, I cannot train anymore today, so I'll go play with 'Kichi and Konohamaru for a couple hours."

Indeed, it was a strange thing, but Gamakichi, Konohamaru and his friends clicked together well as soon as they saw each other. They had a common mischievous spirit not dissimilar from Naruto's. They especially loved to scare girls. _A talking toad could scare anyone who doesn't expect it, though._

-_Leave a clone, at least. I need to instruct you on how to open subsequent Gates_- said Kushina, to her retreating son. He obeyed and then left.

* * *

"How are you, Hinata?" asked a worried Naruto, two days after summoning Gamabunta. Since today, Hinata was allowed visitors and Naruto came in person, after his training with the pervert. A pyrefly was floating in the ceiling, observing the scene, but in particular Hinata. Naruto was still training, by keeping a constant trickle of White Chakra from a cracked open Death Gate to the Farplane, to allow a single pyrefly to be around him the whole day. It was hard, very hard, because the Gate tended to close itself when unattended. His mother told him that in battle he will likely be forced to keep it open for a good while if he used his summons, so this was a good training... it was just a side benefit that it allowed her to keep an eye on Naruto, really!

"Naruto-kun... I... thank you for visiting..." she became redder than a tomato in a few moments. Kushina resisted the temptation to bonk his son's head for his denseness regarding girls. How could he have missed such a colossal infatuation? An infatuation that probably had years to grow! But maybe the fact that he WAS worried about her could be a first step? She was certainly nicer than Sakura-chan, even if that girl mellowed a good deal in the last few weeks towards her son. But if her clan considered her weak, she would likely be shoved in the branch family in the future and that girl was just too nice to deserve that fate. She made a mental note to get Hizashi and Minato together and let them devise a counter for that damn Hyuga slavery seal, possibly one that could protect her bloodline from theft like the Caged Bird already did.

"I.. have to ask you about Neiji, Hinata-chan..." started a worried Naruto.

Hinata bowed her head down. The silence was very long, but finally Hinata found either the courage or the right words, Naruto couldn't tell: "He... he... is … unhappy, Naruto-kun. Even more than me."

Naruto could not believe his ears. Her cousin tried to kill her and she...

He shook his head. He understood her all too well, the pain, the hate, and the fact that she didn't hate her persecutors for being fallible humans.

They were more alike than he though.

"Thank you, Hinata-chan. I have reached a decision. Watch me in the finals, I will win for you as well!"

Yes, Neiji will live, because it would break Hinata's heart. He will still be humiliated, but he now owed his life to Hinata-chan, even if he didn't know it and probably didn't deserve it either.

"Y-you are welcome, Naruto-kun."

As soon as Naruto left, she realized with a start that Naruto had called her Hinata-chan.

She fainted immediately with a happy smile.

* * *

Akiko marched toward the Hokage's office, an appointment requested two days ago under her actual identity of Iwasa Akiko, complete with her forged documents. She was glad it passed the old man's secretary scrutiny, but she doubted she could simply be let inside the old ma... er.. Hokage-sama's office so easily. Probably even if the old.. er..Hokage-sama let her in, he would be watching her like a hawk, trying to pierce her true identity and why did she bother to clumsily falsify all those papers just to meet him.

Her prevision was right on the money, she was shown the way to the door, but she could already see the calculating eye on ….. Hokage-sama.

"Iwasa Akiko for a mission report, Hokage-sama." said in a smooth, professional and a little shy voice, and delivered her scroll right on his desk. The old man examined it suspiciously, then broke the seal and read. He began paling a bit as he read, throwing glances to her once in a while. He explained almost everything about her motives to create Akiko's identity, including the librarian's treatment, their expected behavior, the infiltration and acting potential, the uninflated prices in stores, the information gathering (also known as gossiping) in the kunoichi grapevine, her self-assigned mission and the result of her success, including detailed names of all people whom have been presented with forged credentials to let him judge who had reported them secretly and who had fallen for them without question.

"So, Iwasa-san, are you here to stay?" he asked, slightly smirking. "After all, I remember your sixth birthday, you were such a vivacious little girl, then..." he said, laughing inside.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. And letting me wear your hat all afternoon was the best present anyone ever gave me, I must thank you."

Her identity proved to the man's approval, he destroyed the scroll.

"You have put me in a tight situation, Akiko-chan. I cannot allow you to divulge what you discovered until you become a jonin, I hope you understand."

"Completely, Hokage-sama. It would bring enemies down my head faster than the Yellow Flash himself."

The aging Hokage smiled, and wrote a paper. "Bring me a photo and I'll make you some real identification. And congratulation on your mission, I'll add it as a B-rank in both your files, and I'll even give you C-rank pay for the information about the security in the Tower. I hope you have plans to add this specialty to your resume."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

As the young, slightly smiling and... dared he say... demure and shy kunoichi left the room, Sarutobi began laughing heartily. He had been pranked in his own tower and didn't even recognize the young boy.. girl, whatever until he read the scroll. And despite the moral quandary of allowing the boy to continue this... charade with his official blessing, his motivations were sound. He could not, in all honesty, reprimand the boy for using trickery to get what was his right. ANBU reports about the activity of the … girl, showed she used her id to get only genin-level materials and below, or to shop in specialty ninja stores.

He sighed, and prepared a form to dish a heavier punishment for Yasha Horiki. Letting an unauthorized person in a monitored area and allowing her to scan documents was a breach in security. And while he was at it, he would hide the Uzumaki Clan register in a safer area and replace it with a fake. After all the rightful heir already knew the secreted information in it, now.

Jiraya chose really well his new apprentice, and the old man was proud of both of them.

* * *

Naruto was examining almost every book in the library for any information on the byakugan. He had dozen of clones out, in the middle of the night to not disturb usual visitors with his 'aggressive search'. His mother told him that he shouldn't rely on her for every answer and had to learn how to get his own information when needed, and he reluctantly agreed. He prepared himself for a monumental headache, but he had no choice, his plans needed the most information he could get. It would not do him any good to try a plan and be foiled before it was even started by that doujutsu's power. He had ordered the clones to just scan books and not bother to read them, then replace them in the shelves. No one would discover his intrusion.

His mission was successful, he got plenty of scraps to put together all the powers publicly known about the byakugan, and in a ninja village that sort of secrets did not last very long.

The byakugan could see almost 360 degrees all around, minus a very small speck right behind his third vertebrae. It could see through matter and see chakra, its circulatory system and as Neiji demonstrated, the best could see also the tenketsu themselves. He found data on the most famous moves of the Gentle Fist, including Jukenhou _Hakke_: Rokujuuyon Sho, a frightening technique able to close up to 64 tenketsu in key places in the enemy's chakra circulatory system, to completely disable an opponent, and its various stronger versions. He doubted a genin, even as powerful as Neiji was, could afford the chakra expenditure of those, but he would Scan him soon, just to be sure and check which skills he actually knows.

Amongst the information uncovered on the Hyuga bloodline, he found an interesting potential weak point: the user could not see under the ground unless he specifically tried to look in it. Oh, how his pranking senses vibrated after finding that one out! But he could not tip his hand before the match. He would ask either the pervert or Ebisu sensei for an underground move jutsu and use it to prepare a colossal seal trap for him. He just had to find out which one and practice setting it up in a short time. He had just a little more than a week, after all!

However...

He could become predictable if he started always using seal traps, and that wasn't an option. He WAS the number one unpredictable ninja in Konoha, and wanted to keep the title! Better to use the seal trap as an additional layer to cover up something else, he just had to think it up before the match.

"_Aargh, where is Shikamaru when I need a strategy instead of a simple battle tactic?_"

* * *

-_Yes, Naruto-chan, now that you are building the bridge to the Farplane, think about Carbuncle. He has a long-standing relationship with our family and will easily answer to your call. He will need about one third of the chakra in your Death Gate to manifest himself._-

Naruto did as requested, and soon, on the very "tip" of he probe he could feel something akin to childish curiosity. Suddenly, that something grabbed the probe and drew from his Gate about a third of the Chakra in it, as his mother warned him, and in a shower of pyreflyes before him appeared.... well.... a floating emerald green rat-like plush toy with a ruby embedded in its forehead...

-_I am not a plush toy, Naruto-sama!_- said a child-like voice in his head. If it was human, he would have guessed it was a 6-7 years old child who just spoke.

"Sorry, Carbuncle..." started Naruto, while Kushina laughed loudly in his mind.

-_Carbuncle-chan, if you don't remember I thought the very same thing the first time I summoned you!_-

-_I was trying to forget it, Kushina-sama._-

"So, you are the Shielding Guardian, right?"

-_That is correct, Naruto-sama. I specialize in building and demolishing shields and barriers. I'm usually employed to guard the children of the family, but that is because of my abilities, and NOT because I resemble a plush toy!_-

"Uh, yes, right!" Apparently the pl... uh.. the Shield Guardian could read his mind, too, he even caught his though as he was making it. Could be useful in battle.

-_Yes, Naruto-sama, we Guardians, in exchange of your chakra, allow these pyreflyes construct to be under your command with an imprint of our personalities and powers. Since pyreflyes are controlled by your mind, we can actually hear your thoughts and act accordingly to your wishes. Naturally we also will need chakra from your Summoning Gates to use our powers.-_

"What do you mean with that?"

-_To use my most basic power, the Ruby Light, you will need to let me drain about a fourth of the chakra normally stored in your Death Gate. If you have not enough, you can open the Wonder Gate, and so on. To use the powers of any Guardian, you have to supply the power yourself, in addition to the power required to summon him. If you are forced to open the Warrior Gates, too, be careful to NEVER let all your Celestial Gates be completely drained at the same time, or you will die!_-

"Y-yes, thank you, Carbuncle."

-_I can feel the strain to keep the Gate open is building, Naruto-sama. Please summon me again tomorrow and I'll instruct you on my powers._-

"Ok, Carbuncle. See you tomorrow!"

The pl... uh.. Guardian disappeared in a shower of pyreflyes, with a whispered -_I am NOT a plush toy!_- while his Death Gate slammed closed against his will, dissipating even his mother's pyrefly before she could comment (But her constant laughing was comment enough).

Deciding to drop the matter, he returned to his seals book.

OMAKE:

Naruto arrived at Ebisu's training ground with a floating Carbuncle in tow.

-_How many times must I tell you, Naruto-sama! I – AM – NOT – A – PLUSH – TOY!_-

"KAWAIIII!!" yelled a certain pink-haired kunoichi, grabbing Carbuncle from the air and squeezing him to the point where his eyes were bulging out. "Is this your plush toy, Naruto? How did you make it float?"

Naruto looked at Carbuncle, then said: "You can keep it for today if you wish, Sakura-chan. He is actually being stubborn by saying he is not a plush toy!"

"How can it be? He's so incredibly squeezable!" Carbuncle's eyes almost shot away from the pressure her arms were delivering on the poor Guardian. Naruto then left, leaving the poor Guardian to his fate.

-_N-Naruto-sama! FORGIVE ME! HELP! HEEEEEELP MEEEEEEE!_-

"Ohh, my poor plushie-chan! Today I'll be your mommy!"

-_AAAAAAARGH!_-


	12. Final preparations

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 12: Final preparations

by Chronodt

Naruto grumbled at the old pervert's stubbornness. He had finally allowed him to wear weights, but it was probably a bit late, since it was less than a week before the finals. He continuously told him that he had to first learn the right moves before adding power and speed. He was probably right, from the training books he read from the library, but he had mastered more than half of the katas already!

"No, brat!" he yelled again. "I told you! Do it again!"

With a grumble, Naruto restarted the kata, again.

"Good, your movements are completely mastered, but you lack the full movement range. You used how many clones to get it so fast?"

"Uh... a dozen, I think."

"Then you'll train a dozen times longer today. I TOLD you to not use those damn clones to master the katas! They are not just movements to memorize, they train the flexibility of your body, too!"

_Argh... a dozen times more! He'll kill me!_

"I hope this time you'll learn THAT lesson!"

Naruto grumbled, but obeyed.

Jiraya left the area, and reached a small waterfall.

"Kakashi..." said the pervert, nodding to the gray-haired man.

"Jiraya-sama, how is he doing?"

"He switches randomly between being a genius and being a complete idiot. He has glaring holes in his shinobi education that we are trying to find and close, and finally a will to succeed harder than steel."

"The perfect pupil, then." said the one-eyed man, a little sadly.

"Hardly, he is a knucklehead, with an ego greater than the Hokage Monument. And mostly unable to stay put, even considering that if what Iruka said is correct, he had improved enormously in that department."

"Yes, I agree. Two months ago I would have never imagined Naruto meditating in the middle of a lake." they turned their head to see one of the clones trying to meditate and keep himself on the water at the same time.

"How about his success possibilities, Jiraya-sama?"

"I have reviewed his battle at the tower. He is already chunin material even if he has not chunin level taijutsu or genjutsu. Heck, he barely is genin level in those two fields! But I have no doubt that that Hyuga guy will lose. I have spied Naruto plan his take down, including the scrapped ones. Those Hyuga really don't have any idea what their overspecialization will bring down on them unless someone like Naruto humiliates them in public. And he made those plans from publicly available data, even to genin. Enemy ninja, with their Bingo books and intelligence will be able to make even better ones."

Kakashi nodded, perfectly aware that a few Hyuga in ANBU were like that, too.

"His seals are also coming along nicely. He already is solid chunin in Fuuinjutsu. He mastered the seal he wants to use in the finals just yesterday."

"And that is?"

"Oh, it is a little surprise. I already know what he plans to do with it, too."

Kakashi seemed a bit annoyed to his idol's silence and smugness.

* * *

-_That's good, Naruto-sama._- said Carbuncle, floating behind the clone. They discovered that the chakra in the Gates was divided amongst the clones as well, but each of them could call up Carbuncle's powers if they had enough energy to power it. Not only that, but being essentially the same person, with the same chakra signature, a clone could invoke them to the benefit of another or flawlessly combine the chakra flows into the summon! Unfortunately, even though her mother told him Carbuncle was one of the least powerful Guardians, he still required a lot of power to operate.

-_That combination technique will be good against Neiji, Naruto-sama._-

"Yes... but I can use it only two or three times in the whole battle, while Neiji if he has the chakra may use that technique dozens of times."

-_.... there... is a way to lower costs, Naruto-sama. Usually I am not the one to introduce it, because I most often teach children under 10 years of age..._-

Naruto nodded, trying to stop thinking about roasting the fox.

-_You may craft a Summoner's staff, Naruto-sama. You should be able to, barely, even if it is hard and requires a lot of concentration._-

"Uh?"

-_You are aware that you can craft items with pyreflyes, right?_-

Naruto remembered the scrolls and the letter.

"Yes, but I don't know how."

-_Ask Kushina-sama about it, Naruto-sama. A summoner's staff if a pyrefly construct crafted from your own pyreflyes. It is extremely hard to produce, the first few times, but using it will reduce noticeably the cost of summoning a Guardian and by a good amount the cost of using his powers._-

"Why didn't you tell me this, before?"

-_Because the first forging requires the opening of at least two Warrior's Gates to shape it._-

Naruto nodded. He was barely able to open a second Gate, either Summoning or Warrior. Lee was a truly gifted ninja (not a genius or he would be offended by the remark) if he could manage to open FIVE Gates. Opening a second consecutive gate was twice as hard of opening both the Initial and the Death Gate at the same moment, and mom told him that the difficulty would only increase after that. It was no wonder, opening a single Gate wasn't truly hard, Sasuke with the sharingan managed to do it at his first try, even if he probably had no idea what he had done to his body copying Lee's move like that. Opening two consecutive Gates was hard work, and three beyond him, for the moment.

-_It will be highly unlikely you'll be able to complete it in time for the finals, Naruto-sama, but item crafting can be useful as a distraction in the match. Sadly, hastily made items will not endure a battle, so no weapons.-_

"Yes, I can already see the potential uses, even if I cannot make weapons with it. Well, not one that would damage the enemy, but what if the enemy doesn't know that it won't harm it? I can use it as area denial."

-_Yes, good idea, Naruto-sama._-

"Ok, let's start again...."

However, Naruto was already planning a clone marathon to master item crafting.

* * *

-_Say, Naruto-chan_- started Kushina, while she explained the rudiments of item crafting. -_I think you should think about your second match, too._-

"Yeah, I know, but I have trouble finding any useful information on the library. I am convinced that Gaara's sand could be categorized as a hybrid elemental manipulation, not just earth. Sand is both solid and fluid, it does not behave like a standard earth manipulation. Lightning, that would be the best choice against earth manipulation, may not be the solution."

-_You may be right on that. However lightning will likely pierce his defense, if you know a jonin level lightning jutsu._-

"There is no chance either of my teachers will teach it to me without teaching me all the lower level ones first."

-_Any thought at all about Sasuke winning the match?_-

"Yes, but it's hard to imagine. And whatever is good enough to bring Gaara down, would bring him down, too!"

-_Uh, yes. Remember about underestimating opponents._-

"The fact is, that I only know about Sasuke's ego as an exploitable weakness. He is too well balanced. Let's return back to getting past Gaara's sand, or it will become depressing. Let's start examining the remaining four elements."

-_As you wish. Wind will be useless, cut sand will just aggregate itself again. To blow it away is good, but just for the loose strands._-

"Fire will make it become glass. I cannot risk him being able to control it as well or I will find myself sliced up pretty fast, and I would need Kage level fire jutsu as well. Less than that, and the sand will simply absorb it."

-_Earth element will probably be completely useless. Compacting his sand into rock may be useful, but we must assume he can just as easily make it sand back again. Remember the gourd in his back._-

"Yeah, he decomposed it into sand to cushion himself."

-_The only 2 elements that have any hope of defeating Gaara, then, are water and lightning. You will never learn a lightning jutsu of a threatening level in time for the match, even if you had the whole month again. You'd better get a contract with a new lightning elemental summon and try chunin level water jutsu on his sand._-

"Any suggestions?"

-_I'd go for Ixion. Ramuh is more powerful and wise, but Ixion has a powerful piercing attack and is really fast. He is also somewhat horse-shaped so you can ride him to avoid the sand._-

"Well.. it will be a jolt of a ride!"

Kushina didn't bother responding to that pun.

* * *

Naruto walked to the hospital again. Hinata was already out, dismissed yesterday, but Lee was still here and will likely remain so for a long while.

"Yo, Shikamaru!" said Naruto, seeing his pineapple-shaped hairstyle.

"Naruto... a new wardrobe, I see. Finally." said the lazy genius.

"You, too, Shika!" said a dejected Naruto. Everyone he met ALWAYS commented on how much better his new clothes were, it was depressing.

"You here for Lee, too?" Naruto noted the bowl of fruit. He suddenly remembered his resolve to offer a ramen bowl to Shika for the first test. He rummaged his pockets and found the coupon he kept for him.

"Here, Shika. For your help on the first test, as a thank you." Naruto passed the Nara a coupon for a free bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's.

"Well, it will be troublesome to walk all the way there... but it's free food. Thank you, Naruto. And no, I'm here for Chouji. He ate a bit too much a few days ago and had to be hospitalized. But the nurses said me he cannot get any food." he indicated his fruit.

"Well, we can either torment him by eating them in front of him... or give it to Lee." said Naruto with a smirk.

"I think I'd rather give it to Lee, thank you very much." said Shikamaru, with a smirking face, too.

They approached Lee's door, but were horrified to discover that Gaara was there, too, about to murder the boy in his sleep.

"Kagemane no Jutsu!" hurried Shikamaru, while Naruto stepped between Gaara and Lee, preparing to open a Gate if necessary. However, Gaara seemed somewhat disturbed by his presence, because as soon as his eyes saw Naruto, they widened, and he could feel an overpowering... fear?

"_Strange, it doesn't seem to come from Gaara_" thought Naruto, then he Scanned him. The results were alarming. Gaara, the last son of the KazeKage, was the container for Shukaku, the Ichibi no Tanuki, the one-tailed raccoon, and the seal was... leaky, just barely strong enough to keep him from leaving the host altogether, but threatening his sanity and willpower because their minds were somehow still connected. His primary element was sand that, as he suspected, was a bloodline combination of earth and wind. He knew no taijutsu or genjutsu to speak of, and his only ninjutsu abilities were related to sand, but it was jonin level, easily, if not more. His most fearsome attack was the Desert Graveyard, that he almost used on Lee if not for the timely intervention of Gai sensei. His sand defense was completely automatic, governed by the demon's will to live and controlled by youki, while his sand armor was governed by his will and chakra. He could use this! Even if he could not find an effective counter to his sand, he could swamp it with White Chakra and eliminate the demon's control of it! Then without the automatic shield he could use Ixion's piercing attack!

"What are you doing to our comrade, Gaara of the Desert." Asked an annoyed Shikamaru.

"I was trying to kill him." he answered in a monotone voice.

Both Shikamaru and Naruto were shocked that he admitted to it so blatantly.

"You won the fight, what need you have to kill him?" asked Shikamaru.

"I'm going to kill him because I want to."

Naruto was almost feeling pity for him. Keyword almost.

"You damn bastard!" yelled Naruto

"If you get in the way... I'll kill you, too!"

Naruto resisted the temptation to open both Warrior Gates, flood him with White Chakra right now and give him an ass-kicking of a level he could only relive in his nightmares.

So THIS is what the village was afraid of him to become? A monster that cared for no one beside himself? That killed on a whim?

Shikamaru, looking at Naruto, was aware that he was about to explode, and said: "We know that you are strong, from the preliminaries, but we are not pushover, either, and neither of us used our best moves, yet. Plus, it's 2 on 1. If you leave without any problem, we'll let you go."

Gaara seemed unaffected: "I'll repeat. Get in my way and I'll kill you"

"You won't be able to kill me!" said Naruto, preparing himself to a fight, but was stopped by Shikamaru.

"Don't aggravate him, are you stupid?"

"I am dealing with a stronger monster than him everyday!" said Naruto.

"A monster, you say? You are right, I was born a monster." said Gaara, and he started explaining the history of Shukaku's sealing in him and the numerous assassination attempts ordered by his own father.

"To live, you need a reason, and I found mine, after countless killed assassins. I live to kill everyone except me. And I would live by loving only myself. As long as there are people to kill, I will feel alive, and I will validate my existence."

"_What a disturbed mind!_" thought Shikamaru, realizing fully that he had before him a certifiable psychopath. A murderous psychopath.

Naruto instead saw a possible alternate version of himself in him, and truly pitied the boy. If he had been subjected to constant assassination attempts and with no one to acknowledge him... he could see himself easily coming to the same conclusion. However, to break his beliefs, he would probably both need to defeat him, just to make him listen, and then show him that he could live even without killing people. A monumental job, one he didn't feel up to, actually. Even if he was completely sure he could beat him, it was... too close to home his mentality. His mother's presence had healed many of his childhood scars, but he still had a buried deep resentment toward the village. It would take many years to undo all that damage...

Shikamaru at that point lost the hold on Gaara, but the arrival of Gai stopped Gaara again, and he left, promising to kill them both.

Still, he could feel a sense of fear from him, that he now could easily understand as coming from the demon.

* * *

Ixion was... jumpy. He had a truly hyperactive personality that rivaled and probably exceeded his own. It took him two whole days to be able to summon him and it almost completely drained his Death Gate to do so. He hoped he could finish his Staff in time because there was no way he could summon him after Neiji's fight, otherwise!

-_Naruto-sama!_- sparked a bit Ixion, while trying to teach Naruto how to ride him. -_Keep yourself __balanced, you have to flow together with my movements, not against!-_

"I'm trying, Ixion, but it's the very first time I ride something!"

-_Let's go again, Naruto-sama!_-

Ixion was fast, as mom said. Very fast and extremely agile. Surely faster than Lee without his weights, but not as fast as the Extreme Lotus. As she said, Ixion looked like a magnificent white horse, with a long, golden, lightning-shaped horn on its forehead that occasionally sparked with excess electricity. Riding him was an incredible experience, even if he was a complete beginner.

His horn charge attacks were strong, but he also had a few others that were sensational. A pity he could not get enough chakra to get the full-version of them. Aerospark looked perfect to get rid of Gaara's sand armor and Thor's Hammer looked very deadly. Unfortunately without the Staff he would need to open two Summoning Gates to use that last one, without considering what was needed to summon him. A pity, really, it was that kind of thing that awed everyone, and let people think 'what a kick-ass technique'!

Well, it could also have the opposite effect and make people terrified of him even more...

-_You are getting a little better, Naruto-sama. In two months you'll be able to ride me well!_-

"I don't have even a couple of days, but it's alright. I just have to survive riding you long enough to win..."

* * *

Akiko whistled happily while carrying most of Naruto's money in her pouch. It was time to make a few bets, since tomorrow was the day. All the others were working really hard to master item crafting, because that evening she would finally craft the Summoning Staff! She had already a nice design for it, having seen a similar weapon in a shop, last week. It was a glaive, a pole arm with a wicked blade on top so she could use it as a weapon, even when mounted, covered in runes and.. completely orange, including the blade. That lovely shade surely would make it easier to conjure, considering how much the success of the crafting depends on her willpower!

Now it just needed an awesome name.

She already discarded things like the Orange Menace, the Orange Death, the Orange Toothpick as completely lame and unoriginal. Even the Uzumaki Glaive didn't sound right, especially because she won't be able to pass it to her children, each of them will have to craft their own. She supposed the name will have to wait until she first laid her eyes on it.

Going at the official betting booth, she discovered she would get a 35:1 odd for Neiji's fight and a 80:1 for both passing the first match and then defeating Gaara. "_Wow, they must really think I have no hope to win! It will be a pleasure to get their money for it!_"

She pocketed her receipt of 400 ryo placed on Uzumaki Naruto's victory against Hyuga Neiji and another 100 ryo against Gaara's. He put less on the second bet because Sasuke could win his first match and she would automatically lose that bet if he did. Even if she did just win the first bet, she would get 14,000 ryo, enough to buy herself a small apartment, and say goodbye to her stinky landlord who never bothered to fix appliances for 'the demon'. "_Hmm.. maybe I could leave a clone around there to let the stupid people think Naruto still lives in that apartment... hehehe._"

She observed the parade of noblemen all in their carriages and palanquins enter Konoha, thinking that it was almost time.

Tomorrow Neiji will be ground to dust!!!!!

Believe it!


	13. The third test part 1

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 13: The third test: part 1

by Chronodt

"Finally! Today I can beat up that asshole Hyuga!" yelled Naruto, in his apartment. He checked his tools. Ninja wire, pre-made seals in scrolls to hasten the deployment of the first part of his plan, exploding tags, soldier and blood replenishing pills, shuriken, kunai, a stolen rain rebreather mask and his new blazing orange 'Summoning Glaive', that he decided to carry on the arena to avoid expending the chakra to summon it. It wasn't an original name, but it was a good deception to let people think that it was the staff's power that let him summon the Guardians. He was also tempted to enter the match with Carbuncle already summoned, but it would do him no good. If Neiji didn't ridicule Carbuncle as he was summoned it would lessen his humiliation!

He strapped his summoner's staff on his back and left his apartment. He would have loved to let mom see his battle, but couldn't afford the expense and concentration to keep a pyrefly floating around for her use. He also reviewed his plan to take down Neiji, smirking. As his plan dictated, he released a good amount of White Chakra from the Initial Gate in his system, then closed it immediately again, to let it refill before the start of the match. Now he had enough White Chakra in his system for quite a few jutsu.

He would surely get his new apartment!

* * *

The stadium was very big, allowing a good deal of people to witness the fights, including clients, nobles and ninja. The public area was at least 30 meters above ground level, to protect the public from even the most widespread jutsu a chunin should be able to use. Naruto was ecstatic for the public and was even now enacting the first part of his plan. Underneath him, so very slowly, five clones were moving underground to prepare to set several seal arrays. They would stay still until the memories of the first dissipated clone in the fight told them to begin to avoid any cheating charges (not that it would matter, being a ninja battle, but his enemies would use everything they could to damage him). His orange glaive covered in runes and seals attracted a lot of eyes, but that was good, too.

"_Where is Sasuke?_" asked Naruto to himself. "_He can't have already caught sensei's lateness disease!_"

The examiner, a different one from the preliminaries, warned them to pay attention to the public, since they were the stars. A few minutes later, the Hokage himself made a short speech to officially start the final phase of the chunin exam. Apparently that bandage guy, Dosu retired sometime during the last month because he was no longer in the schedule. Shikamaru, who had an extra match with him, appeared happy about it.

"What happens if Sasuke isn't here on time?" asked a worried Naruto to the examiner.

"He will be given a default loss. The same will be if, after a match, one of you won't recover in time to battle again, in the next round."

"Alright, hear me out." continued in an official tone. "Just like the preliminaries, there are no rules, but the match will immediately end when I decree the victory of one participant, and obviously when an opponent dies or surrenders."

No one was surprised by these rules, expecting them.

"Now, the first fight is Uzumaki Naruto against Hyuga Neiji. To the others, please leave the arena from that door to the waiting room."

Naruto used this little time to Scan Neiji, while his byakugan was still deactivated. As he suspected, he was genin level in genjutsu and ninjutsu and he knew only the three academy ones. He was near jonin level in taijutsu, that was a really good feat, he isn't the Hyuga genius for anything. He obviously had the byakugan, and his range was actually 50 meters. He knew both Kaiten and Hakke Rokujuuyon Sho, moves he technically shouldn't know being a branch member. What a stupid thing, to weaken their protectors. His completely unused elemental affinity was earth, but it didn't matter, since he didn't know any worthwhile ninjutsu.

A few minutes later, when the 2 genin were alone (except the proctor, that is), Neiji said: "You look like you want to say something."

Naruto didn't make him wait. He used the same pose he used for the promise on Hinata's blood, and said: "As I promised you, I will defeat you in the most humiliating way I could think of."

Neiji looked in his eyes, byakugan activated. "It won't be a weapon or a new wardrobe that will defeat me, loser. It will be fun to make you discover where you stand in the real world."

"Begin!" yelled the proctor.

"_Now, phase one of the plan, warn the clones below ground that it's time to start and simultaneously test Neiji's taijutsu prowess, to see if Shell or Protect is the most effective shielding again the Gentle Fist. While I cannot use those spells, yet, Carbuncle can and will, later._"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" yelled Naruto, and 4 shadow clones appeared in a puff of smoke.

"I see, Shadow Clones, but there will be still one true body." said Neiji, unaffected.

Each clone took out a kunai, and attacked the Hyuga. Amongst the public many noticed that none of the Naruto clones or the original himself took out the glaive.

Neiji made quick work of the clones, and they dissipated soon after. Neiji was really impressive, especially in the way he defended from those attacks from behind. However, he now had his answer. Despite everything, the hits delivered by Neiji were of only average strength. Like he suspected the true strength of Neiji's style was the chakra injected in the tenketsu, even when he didn't aim for vitals. Disable his byakugan and Protect will be more than enough to let his clones survive a few hits and complete his planned deception. And he knew that the clones below ground were now at work, deploying the pre-made seals and connecting them for the rest of the mission: 'humiliate Neiji'

"_Phase two, gain time for the underground clones to finish work. Preferably distract him also by taunting the Hyuga and his destiny crap..._"

"So you want to become Hokage, aren't you?" asked Neiji, with a derisive smirk. "It's impossible with your abilities. I can see it with these eyes. Talent is determined at birth, in fact everything is determined at birth."

"How did you come to know it? You shouldn't assume things." asked a sarcastic Naruto.

"You think you can become Hokage just by trying hard? Or that someone with your pitiful talent is destined to become Hokage? Only a handful of shinobi may become Hokage and all of them were born into that destiny. Look closer to reality, people become what their destiny chose for them and no amount of hard work will change that. The only destiny everyone shares... is death."

"So, what will be tomorrow's weather, Neiji?"

Neiji looked confused, for a moment.

"Well, if you are such an incredible oracle that you can guess people's destiny with a single look, that is a simple question."

A roar of laughter could be heard from the public. Neiji did NOT appreciate it.

"How can you mock destiny, Naruto?"

"I thought I was mocking YOU..." said Naruto, preparing to use again the Shadow Clones. Neiji was becoming angry. Fortunately his stupid destiny speech gave him all the time he needed and more. In fact all five underground clones had dispersed themselves right in the middle. "_Now it is time for phase three: make a mockery of his logic and battle awareness... well almost achieved the first on his destiny speech, but I want more._"

He again created clones, but this time around 20 of them. He left one behind, to act as a bait, while everyone else was attacking. It worked splendidly, Neiji attacked that clone thinking to have defeated the true Naruto, and then to see it explode before his eyes...

Attacking the surprised Neiji, he was forced to use Kaiten, the Heavenly spin, his 'absolute defense'. And his subsequent pose didn't leave any doubts to Naruto that he was about to use his other ace, and he prepared the Esuna construct.

"_Phase four, let him reveal his aces, then defeat them. This is the most painful part of the plan..._"

"Your fate is sealed, because you are in the range of my divination: Juukenhou Hakke, Rokujuuyon Sho!" and he shot forward hitting Naruto in sequence, trying to close tenketsu in the most important junctions of his chakra circulatory system. He immediately released his Esuna construct, and the clogged paths were freed as soon as they were hit. It still was painful, though.

"I have hit 64 critical points of your chakra circulatory system, you can no longer stand. Isn't it painful? Stay down and contemplate your inability to stand against a superior power, as decreed by fate."

"What superior power are you speaking about, Neiji?" asked Naruto, jumping on his feet. Neiji was completely shocked, as well as many in the public, first amongst all Hyuga Hiashi.

"When I told you I was out to humiliate you, I meant it. What better way to do it if not by making your aces useless? S you can see, I already defeated your Rokujuuyon Sho, and with the help of this, I'll beat your Kaiten, too!" Naruto finally took the glaive from his back and stood in a clumsy guard position.

"How? You should be on the ground!" he looked again, and saw that, effectively, his tenketsu were still open.

"Now it's time for my counterattack, say hello to Carbuncle, the Shield Guardian!" With a shower of energy, Naruto opened his Death gate and was awed by the ease of gathering pyreflyes by simply holding his Summoner's Staff. The Staff itself very choreographically lit up evidencing hundreds of runes. The summoned pyreflyes coalesced into Carbuncle, right beside him.

"... Kaiten defeated by a floating toy? Are you still trying to mock me, loser?"

Naruto observed Carbuncle's eyelid twitch. Boy, was he pissed!

"_Phase five: activate the largest underground seal array, and let Neiji think it's Carbuncle's power. That will require a wagonload of chakra, but it will be worth it, just to see his face. This will mock his byakugan in a way that will make him look stupid, too. Then activate the first layer of the second one at my feet and make him think it's something useful to me and stay still until he tries to attack me._"

"Well, see for yourself what Carbuncle can do!" yelled Naruto, activating the seal while asking Carbuncle to start glowing. The area around Neiji lighted up, a 20 meters diameter circle sprung up about his opponent's position. Since his underground clones couldn't see while they were digging, it wasn't perfectly centered on his opponent, but it was large enough to compensate that.

Nothing appeared to change for most of the spectators, but if someone looked with a byakugan would suddenly see an extremely dense chakra mist envelop the ground of the arena, greatly reducing his visibility. Neiji could immediately see the effects, with his byakugan active he could see only at around arm distance, and he began to immediately tense up. Since he didn't know what abilities that damn plushie had, he tried to analyze all known ways to blind the byakugan. In the meantime, four clones started attacking Neiji, just to spite him and not leave him time to discover the simple solution. Carbuncle used his Pearl Light, to cast Protect on each clone (and the true Naruto, while he was at it). Unable to see tenketsu, or anything farther than his arm, Neiji found himself at a great disadvantage. He was attacked by wind, kunai, a few fists and since he couldn't see well he could not use Kaiten effectively. It was then that he decided to try dropping the byakugan, his analytic mind finally understanding what has likely happened, and saw that the air was perfectly clear. He made a fool of himself before the public, because most people had no idea of what had happened to him.

"So you realized it, it took you longer than I expected, from the 'genius' of the Hyuga Clan" taunted Naruto. He had been careful of making Carbuncle both very visible (and slightly luminescent) and high in the sky. Neiji, in his Hyuga arrogance would have no projectile weapons and if he wanted one he'd have to take mine, since all the thrown ones were from the Shadow Clones.

"So, do you like Carbuncle's power, Neiji?" Technically true, he DID cast Pearl Light, didn't he?

"_Phase six, let him draw his own (wrong) conclusions on Carbuncle's powers, to make him use the byakugan again only when I want him to._"

"So you got yourself a toy who can darken my eyes, but it won't save you. I don't need the byakugan to kill you." And he proceeded to demonstrate it by destroying all the clones in two minutes. He took that long because Protect helped the survival rate of the clones. Naruto deactivated the obfuscation circle not only to conserve chakra, but also because he needed the chakra cloud to dissipate before the next Phase. Neiji would assume the clouding effect was still in place as long as Carbuncle was glowing. "_Assumptions and Destiny WILL get you killed, one day!_"

Neiji noted the activated rune circle around Naruto's feet, and he suspected it was protecting him from whatever power his summon was employing, since he had not moved a single step for several minutes. He realized with worry that his clones were much more resilient or, much worse, he had been weakened without him realizing it. Either way, if he got Naruto away from that circle, he could then kill him easily enough, and that summon would be of no consequence because both of them would be subject to its powers. He shot toward Naruto's position, and as he planned, he substituted himself for a log a few instants before being hit. A clone, hidden underground while Neiji couldn't see, rose and activated the secondary seal, turning all his clothes into a pink combat dress perfectly sized for him and his hair were suddenly kept in a pretty pink ribbon, with even faint traces of lipstick in his lips. Yep, a prank!

Carbuncle stopped glowing, on Naruto's orders.

"_Phase seven: let him think he can use the byakugan again as soon as he attacks me, leaving the deactivated main circle. And try to not laugh too much._"

Neiji, as Naruto planned, reactivated the byakugan. His eyes even more venomous then usual, seeing his ruined attire and the laughs he could hear from above.

"You know, right, that it could have as easily been an explosive trap?" asked Naruto, in a half serious mode.

"You have wasted the only chance you had to defeat me, that is why you are a loser and destined to remain so."

"Hardly, I still have to demolish your Kaiten, or have you forgotten?"

Neiji ignored Naruto's word and continued his rant: "Now that you cannot use your little toy, your destiny is already written. I won't give you any time to craft another seal or perform another trick."

"Are you so SURE about it, Neiji-kun?" he said with a mocking tone. He summoned 5 clones, and all 6 of them circled Neiji, who smirked, preparing himself to use a couple of Kaiten to dispatch the clones as soon as they attacked and then pick up the pieces of Naruto after he made him collapse from heart, lung, liver and kidney failure. He would have absolutely no mercy.

The clones and the original ran all together toward their target, in a coordinated attack. Opening wide the Death Gate, he shoved that energy through Carbuncle, waiting for just the right moment. As soon as Neiji started his Kaiten, Naruto yelled: "Barrier Breaker!" and Carbuncle shot a ruby ray of energy that interfered with Neiji's chakra ability to congregate into a shield. Neiji was caught completely by surprise and the 6 Naruto swarmed him, using a combo attack similar to Sasuke's Lion combo, and calling it "Uzumaki and Carbuncle Shield Breaking Rendan!"

With the last hit, Neiji was left on the ground, beaten, bleeding and incredulous.

"_And Phase eight, finish him with our new combo with Carbuncle! Game over!_"

"How..." asked a defeated Neiji.

"Because I don't believe in destiny, Neiji. You should thank Hinata, too. Without the words of that... 'loser' as you put it, I would have done worse."

The proctor smirked, then said: "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!"

The crowd exploded in a shower of applauses.

* * *

"Hah! I told you!" said Kiba, who had rooted for Naruto's victory from the very beginning.

"Naruto-kun..." said Hinata. She had been sick for a moment during the match, but she recovered quickly. Evidently she wasn't yet ready to return to active duty.

"That boy, he had the match already planned, didn't he?" asked a nearby chunin to his neighbor. They were Kotetsu and Izumo, the two chunin who held the genjutsu in the academy before the first test.

"It certainly looked like it. I wonder what kind of summon it was."

"Well, if his aim, as he declared, was to humiliate the Hyuga, he succeeded. He made fun of his ideals, his appearance, his byakugan and his two greatest moves were nullified with ease."

"He could have won the battle in any moment with that last Rendan. It shows great arrogance to toy with your opponent. He could surprise you."

"I think he was counting on the Hyuga's even greater arrogance to pull it off. You must admit that he studied his opponent extremely well, he anticipated every move he did. He wasn't surprised by either of his opponent's aces and was ready for them."

"Well, this is a matter for the judges, not us."

"Yes, it's true."

* * *

The next match was slow to come. Sasuke had not arrived in time, but apparently, by the personal request of the Kazekage, his match had been postponed until the end of the first round. The third scheduled match, Kankuro vs Shino also didn't happen, because Kankuro forfeited before going into the arena. The next match, Temari vs Shikamaru was a really long one, and Naruto was glad for it, because to create a chakra fog so dense that the byakugan could not see through took a huge chunk of his reserves and the three hours of Shikamaru's match were what he desperately needed.

Shikamaru's match, while he had needed a little push to start (he he he, oops) and its development slow going, was extremely interesting. He demonstrated his tactical genius when he made use of the underground tunnels made by Naruto's hidden clones at the start of his match to capture his opponent, sign that the pineapple headed boy DID realize his seal trick, but more importantly, all the judges now probably knew, too, if they didn't already. More ammunitions to both of our promotion chances. A pity that lazy ass forfeited at that point.

Sasuke appeared just moment before being disqualified, brought in via shunshin by their sensei, Kakashi. "Our lazy sensei probably wanted to make an entrance, arriving at the very last second." said Naruto to an unresponsive Shino. There was no way Kakashi would enter the very center of the arena if he wasn't completely sure that no one was fighting in it.

"Sasuke! You damn bastard, don't let yourself be contaminated by sensei's lateness! You almost got disqualified!" yelled Naruto, making a lot of people sweatdrop, including Kakashi.

"So.. he's not disqualified?" asked a sheepishly Kakashi to the examiner.

"No, we postponed the match, he is just in time." said the proctor.

Calling down Gaara, the most awaited match was about to begin.


	14. The third test part 2: the invasion

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 14: The third test part 2: the invasion

by Chronodt

Sasuke didn't appear at all troubled by the impassive face of his opponent. As soon as the proctor allowed them to begin, he jumped back, as Gaara's sand left his gourd. A few moments later, Gaara started behaving strangely.

"Don't worry..... mother...." said Gaara. "I fed you.. some nasty blood earlier... but now.. it will be delicious..."

* * *

Naruto heard Gaara's speech, and realized that it was eerily similar to what he could do... speak with his own mother to what other people would think as thin air (or a floating light, at least). A pity his "mother" was an insane demon, instead. Well... maybe it wasn't so dissimilar... sometimes his mom could SOUND like an insane demon, especially when she was lecturing him on manners, the color orange or his ramen, his denseness, his loudness, ...

It was good, actually, to feel even his mother's nagging, especially for someone like him who was literally starved for any kind of affection, filling a hole he didn't even realize he possessed in his heart. He didn't even realize it himself how much he had changed due to that, the realization that somewhere there is someone who loves him unconditionally. He really didn't know what he was missing until he met her. "I wonder if that's what Shukaku is doing to Gaara, replacing his mother for his own motives..." mused Naruto, not realizing that he spoke aloud and that both Kankuro and Temari heard him.

* * *

Sasuke and Gaara battled for a while, Gaara creating a clone of himself with his sand and Sasuke attacking them both, and it didn't take very long for Naruto to realize that Sasuke had copied Lee's taijutsu style and was using it rather well. Not only that, but Sasuke's speed was comparable to Lee's without his weights, to the point of avoiding the sand shield; his hard breathing, though, after only a few minutes, told him that while he did have Lee's speed and style, he didn't have anywhere near his endurance, born from years of hard work. Thinking about a logical reason for his sensei to teach Sasuke that style, since the original Lee failed to win against Gaara with it, he came up with only a reasonable one. He had had to teach him ninjutsu or genjutsu to fill the gap and add a few surprises. "_If ninjutsu, water or lightning? Considering Sasuke's natural element it would be lightning, with the sharingan Sasuke could learn even a jonin level one easily, but could he master it in time, including all that taijutsu training? And why didn't he teach us anything before, if he was able to make Sasuke reach this level in a single month? If I didn't have my family jutsu, the only way I would have to catch up with him, right now, would be to use the fox's youki._"

Gaara, apparently tired of Sasuke avoiding his sand, started closing himself in a hardened sand ball, a spiked rock-hard sand ball, who injured Sasuke when he tried to punch him, and almost cut away one of his eyes. He didn't remember this jutsu from his Scan, then he remembered: the Scan jutsu takes information from Gaara's pyreflyes, but that boy uses also the demon in his fights. The Scan information he got could be only a partial success due to that dual fighting, and he quickly got up and examined this fight with more attention. Luckily he had not been the first to fight the fellow demon container, or he might have had a nasty surprise in the middle of his plan. He would have to scrap it and rethink it anew, with this new data.

A weird eye made of sand floated beside the ball, and Naruto instantly realized that the boy could see through it as if it was real. He could also hear Gaara saying something inside, but with all that sand and the distance he couldn't understand his words. Sasuke, also, was preparing something. He jumped on the far arena wall and gathered lightning in his hand, he could not describe it in any other way. He recognized that jutsu! It was the one Kakashi sensei used to try to kill Zabuza, but ended up killing Haku, instead!

Sasuke shot off like a sparking meteor, and he realized that Lee's speed was necessary to this jutsu, too. Probably thanks to the sharingan, Sasuke pierced that sand shell without being impaled by the sand spikes, and probably injured Gaara as well, but it didn't look like he could have suffered a decisive wound, more like a graze. But Gaara went.... weirder. He screamed like a little girl about his blood, inside his punctured shell, and he saw Sasuke had trouble retracting his arm and was forced to release lightning to manage it. Even so, for just a moment, he saw something like a claw trying to grip Sasuke's arm, and he guessed it was Shukaku's will shaping it. Suddenly he could feel youki emanating from the sphere, and Sasuke looked shocked. "_Oh, right, he has always been unconscious when I used it near him._"

The sphere dissolved, and as he thought, his wound was nothing crippling, but he held it like he never felt pain in his life. Probably was, too, considering his automatic defense. This was bad, he could snap and give full control to the demon. Luckily the previous long match has lasted long enough to fully refill his Gates, so if necessary he could jump in and fight at full strength. However it was at that moment that he started feeling sleepy, while seeing feathers all around...

"Genjutsu!" thought Naruto, using Esuna on himself as quickly as he could. In the arena, score of people were falling asleep left and right, with the occasional ninja dispelling it. But it could mean only one thing, an enemy attack! But who was the enemy?

A loud smoke bomb went off in the Kage seats, and in a few moments, both the Hokage and the Kazekage were on the roof of the building. Four people positioned themselves at the four corner and raised a double red barrier, who burned to death the first ANBU who tried to pass through.

He saw both sound and sand nin attacking leaf ninja, and he guessed who the enemies were. Gaara and his teammates were down in the field, looking at a pained Gaara holding his head, but his mind was furiously thinking about what to do.

Wielding his Summoner's Staff, he immediately summoned Carbuncle, and prepared to do something awesome.

-_Naruto-sama, what is happening?_-

"Invasion, Carbuncle. Pearl Light and Emerald Light on all leaf ninja fighting, NOW!"

He could feel his Gate draining of chakra as Carbuncle obeyed. In a shower of light Carbuncle crafted both Shell and Protect shields on all active leaf ninja in the arena. He would not dare use Ruby Light, to cast Reflect, because it could be a dangerous double edged weapon if he used it on unsuspecting allies. Sasuke also left while he was sending energy to Carbuncle, probably to follow Gaara and his team. He examined the battlefield, and saw the people, ANBU probably, trying to find a way inside that barrier.

-_I can break it, Naruto-sama. Give me the order and I will._-

"Naruto! Shikamaru!" yelled a familiar girl's voice behind him. Sakura was coming down from the public area, with... a small dog in tow. "Kakashi-sensei assigned us a mission. We must track down and stop Sasuke from pursuing Gaara!"

Naruto looked at the barrier again. Carbuncle probably was the only one in the arena or even in the whole village able to bring it down and let help to come in the aid of the old man... er Hokage-sama.

-_Naruto-sama, create a single Shadow Clone. With the Staff and both Summoning Gates open I'll have enough power to break it!_-

Naruto nodded, created a clone, with orders of defending himself absolutely until the barrier was down.

"What are you doing, Naruto? We must go!" said Sakura, after she finished chastising Shikamaru for faking sleep during a battle. The original Naruto left the arena, following the small dog on Sasuke's trail.

* * *

The clone was worried, a few lucky shots could ruin Boss's plan, so he used all the stealth he was capable of to reach the nearest place to the barrier where he could be protected. He went to Kakashi sensei. "Kakashi sensei!" he yelled, so to not be attacked on sight.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? I gave you an order!"

"I am a clone, the Boss is already on the mission. But Carbuncle here..." he showed him the summon. "...is the Shield Guardian, a specialist in chakra defenses. If I can give him enough power he can break that barrier, but I'll need cover for a couple minutes."

Kakashi looked at Carbuncle, a look of surprise and recognition on his eyes. "Do it. Gai and me will cover you." he said, while Gai's teeth sparkled for a moment, as he plunged a kunai in a sound jonin.

The clone completely opened the Death Gate, and fed its power to Carbuncle, who started glowing. Opening the Wonder Gate was really hard for him, and it took almost 3 minutes to manage the feat, but as soon as he did so, Carbuncle avidly took that chakra, then flew like an emerald green missile toward the encased roof, stopping a few "steps" before it. The clone was too tired to yell or make a scene, so Carbuncle simply shot a ruby-colored ray from the gem in his forehead, colliding with the double red barrier and shattering both layers. The posted ANBU didn't waste time and immediately attacked the four barrier makers, who scrambled to defend themselves. Orochimaru saw that the situation was reversing, with Sarutobi getting reinforcements he was no longer sure of his victory. His brief distraction cost him, though, because the old Hokage managed to crush Orochimaru's right arm with Enma's staff form. It was something Kabuto would be easily able to heal, but with this injury and the fallen barrier...

"I'll let you live for today, sensei, but I'll return to finish the job soon enough. But in the meantime, feel free to play with my two toys." he melted within the roof while the four barrier casters, in their second level cursed forms, managed to flee from the ANBU, who were now occupied to stop the two resurrected Hokages that were covering their retreat.

The clone was panting from the effort, Carbuncle had already disappeared in a shower of pyreflyes having exhausted his power and he was about to dispel himself, when Kakashi told him: "Good job, Naruto. Now leave the rest to us."

* * *

"So that's the situation.. what a drag.." said Shikamaru, running after Pakkun. "That Sasuke is really troublesome. Why did I have to be involved?"

"That is Kakashi sensei's order, so don't complain!" said Sakura, getting slightly irritated.

"Hey, you! Pick up the pace, we are being followed!" said Pakkun, the small self declared cute ninja dog. "They are two squads... there are 8, no 9 people on our tracks. They don't seem to have our exact position, but are coming close."

"Ah, already? They must be all chunin or higher, then. If they catch up, they will destroy us!" said Shikamaru.

"If this goes on, even if we catch up with Sasuke we will have enemies before and behind, we must get rid of them, somehow!" said Naruto, thinking furiously. None of his abilities would allow him to delay 9 chunin or above level ninja. If he was alone he could have ridden Ixion and left them in the dust. Thor's Hammer would also be good, but after splitting his chakra with the clone at the arena he no longer had the reserves to do it even with the Staff. Uh, how could he forget them! The toads!

"I will have to stay behind, I am the only one with the ability to delay them. The Kagemane no jutsu was created with this kind of tactics in mind." said Shikamaru

This was even better for Naruto. He bit his hand and made the right handseals, and with a "Kuchiyose no Jutsu" three warrior toads appeared. "Gamatoga, Gamahiro, Gamaseto, you are to help Shikamaru to get rid of our pursuers." The toads nodded, then looked at Shikamaru. "We are going ahead, Shika. We'll see you later!" said Naruto, jumping to the next tree branch behind Pakkun, followed by Sakura.

As the three left the area, the lazy genin turned toward his temporary companions. "So, toad summons, too, uh? You have become a real enigma, Naruto." said Shikamaru, a little relieved for the extra help. "I can use them." said looking at the direction their pursuer were likely to come from. The three toads looked really impressive: as tall as a grown man, they were wearing armor and each had two sharp-looking blades on their backs. Due to their time constraints, Shikamaru quickly explained to the toads what he would require of them...

* * *

"Ahh, I made my escape, apparently." said a relaxed Shikamaru. Nearby, sound ninja were chuckling at his naiveness, before suddenly they realized they couldn't move a muscle.

"That's what I would normally say, by the way." he let them look at the tree branches with which he faked the dog tracks.

"So, we have been captured by a kid." said one of them. "This must be the famous Kagemane no Jutsu of the Leaf."

Shikamaru saw that, as expected, there were only 8 of them captured in the shadow. Showing them his hands, in which he had 8 weapons between kunai and shuriken, he launched them at the captured enemies to flush out the ninth. As soon as he revealed himself, Shikamaru heard a strangled sound, and the three toads jumped in, one of them dropping a dead body. With meticulous precision, they killed also the trapped enemies, just as Shikamaru released them, before sitting down, weak from chakra exhaustion.

"Good work, Shikamaru." Said Asuma sensei, leaving the woods and dropping his cigarette. "Apparently you didn't need me, this time. But now you can rest, your job is done."

* * *

"Our pursuer stopped, but someone else is about to intercept Sasuke and the sand nins, someone who doesn't smell human." said Pakkun.

"Damn, we must hurry!" said Naruto, increasing the pace again. Luckily, Sakura was able to keep the pace thanks to her training, and a few minutes later, Pakkun said: "The unknown is battling one of the sand ninja, Sasuke is following the others."

"We'll avoid them, lead us to Sasuke" said Sakura, relieved to have one less enemy to face.

It took them almost 3 minutes to reach Sasuke, and they saw a nightmarish vision. Naruto knew what was happening, Gaara was giving more and more control to Shukaku and his appearance was reflecting it: his half-deformed face and demonic arm formed from his sand was truly obvious, but what was worse, Sasuke was covered with strange marks and apparently in great pain. Naruto threw a powerful kick to Gaara's face, launching him on the ground and separating him from his teammate, while Sakura examined Sasuke. Naruto knew it was the time he disclosed his cards to his … dared he say it...friends, as he would need all three of them to get Gaara down.

"Sakura, cover me for a minute!" said Naruto, taking a soldier pill from his pouch. Sakura nodded, and exchanged places with Naruto to keep Gaara under observation, thinking he was just about to give Sasuke the pill, however Naruto examined Sasuke and found a contaminated chakra coming from the seal. Deciding to hurry up, he used Esuna on Sasuke, who screamed, but the curse marks evaporated from his body in a gray mist, purging the extraneous energy from the body. Unfortunately Esuna was incapable to erase the seal itself, but Kakashi's seal was again restraining it efficiently. Giving the soldier pill to Sasuke, he cast a couple Cure on him, restoring his body to a pristine level. The pill was also taking effect, letting him recover a good portion of his chakra. Fortunately, Gaara did not attack in the meantime, because the demon in him still looked scared, somehow, but Gaara was fighting that fear, with increasing success, apparently.

Getting to his feet, Sasuke cast a curious look on Naruto, but the three of them turned to face Gaara, who was looking murderous again.

Sasuke looked at his teammates, ready to fight. Since it was no longer the official match he had no scruples about "cheating" going 3 on 1 against such a monster. After all, this was not his brother, he was just a stepping stone to reach his level and he could not afford to die here, even if he had to pair with the dobe and the fangirl to win.

Naruto, too, was thinking something along the same lines. Without murdering brothers, naturally. With Gaara's attention divided against the three of them, he could afford to summon Ixion even with his two available Summoning Gates half depleted from the arena's clone.

Sakura, instead, was absolutely happy to be finally able to be of use to Sasuke-kun, her progresses with genjutsu had increased her danger level enormously, and training with Naruto had actually made her aware of the hidden talents of his blond teammate, who no longer was dead weight in her mind.

Gaara looked with menace to Sakura-chan and the three of them tensed.

It was time to bring down the Ichibi!


	15. Gaara vs Team 7

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 15: Gaara vs Team 7

by Chronodt

Sakura took a look at the mutated Gaara and said: "Naruto.. our mission was to get Sasuke away from him, not fight that...thing!"

"Do you really think he wouldn't go back and attack the village in that condition? I can feel his incredible bloodlust from here!" said a worried Naruto.

Gaara launched his clawed sand-arm toward Sakura, but Sasuke, using his sharingan, predicted this attack and intercepted Gaara's face with a powerful kick, while Naruto took the fear-paralyzed Sakura to safety. As they regrouped, Sakura, startled, asked: "What IS he? He cannot be human!"

Naruto, with a snarl, said: "He is, but he is the container of the Ichibi no Tanuki, Shukaku. The Ichibi is the weakest of the nine Biju, but the seal holding him inside Gaara is so weak that the demon can actually influence or even take over his mind!"

Sasuke nodded, and he finally understood why some of his chakra had a different color. "So he is using his demon to fight, eh? Interesting..."

"He is halfway between jonin and Kage level in sand ninjutsu, almost nothing in the other areas, but I have no idea of what the demon is capable of, except I know that he directly controls the sand shield even when restrained. With Shukaku partially in control, I have no idea what they are truly capable of."

Sasuke nodded, assimilating Naruto's data. He assumed the teacher Kakashi sensei assigned him had done good research on Gaara.

"The elements he is likely to be weak to are lightning and water. I know a few water jutsu, but are all too weak to battle him, but if you can buy me 3 minutes I can summon a powerful lightning natured summon creature." he said, wielding the Summoning Glaive.

"Three minutes? You could have asked for something hard, dobe." said Sasuke with an arrogant smirk. He was a bit peeved about Naruto having a summoning contract with a lightning creature, but he guessed that if he searched, he could find one, too.

"Count on me, too, Naruto!" said Sakura, thinking about what genjutsu could affect both minds at once.

Staff glowing, Naruto started opening the Gates.

* * *

Temari looked at the battle with growing fear. His demented little brother was losing more and more of himself to the demon, and could turn on her, too, but she was desperate to see if she could salvage the situation. Kankuro still hadn't rejoined her, so that bug user was at least strong enough to delay him. The pink head and the Uchiha were now battling Gaara while the Uzumaki stayed behind. "Fools, they are only asking to be killed." she said, hiding behind a tree at a safe distance. She only saw once the full manifestation of Shukaku, but it had been more then enough to give her a nice prospective of her continued survival if she met it again: none. It was a bloodthirsty murderous monster and would kill and destroy everything on his path, no wonder his father, the Kazekage brought him to Konoha during the invasion, but that Uchiha kid excited Gaara so much that he couldn't hold himself back any more. Not only that, he wounded it twice making him even madder than usual. No way in hell would she stay here if he transformed, though!

* * *

Sakura cast the third genjutsu in a row, but none appeared to effect the demon's mind at all: with just a surge of chakra, each of her carefully built constructs collapsed like card castles in a tornado. Her only choice was affecting Gaara's mind, but he was almost as crazy as the demon himself and she had no idea what to use against him. She tried darkness, disorientation and a spatial displacement genjutsu (the last one making it seem opponents were about 10 cm on the right of where they actually were). She tried now a pain illusion. Unfortunately even if it was a hard genjutsu for her, it would inflict only a mild pain, no more than about the equivalent of a shuriken stab, something every ninja is trained to withstand without flinching.

A horrifying scream left Gaara's mouth, as he started crying. "Mother.... it... it hurts, mother! I want their blood!"

Sakura gulped, she didn't expect such a reaction from such a mild pain, and the genjutsu had already been dispelled by their combined chakra. Fortunately, Sasuke-kun managed to make use of his opponent's momentary distraction to throw a kunai with an explosive note at his feet, blowing him toward a tree, where he impacted with a loud crash.

Naruto, meanwhile was still concentrating with his hands on that strange orange weapon whose runes were now glowing white.

Gaara's appearance become even more demonic, with sand covering half his face, one eye becoming yellow and completely inhuman. He again shot at full speed against Sasuke-kun, but his sudden increase in speed accompanied by a surge of youki caught Sasuke-kun by surprise. He was shoved into a tree by his clawed hand, trying to stay alive by keeping his arm before his chest and the sand. Sakura immediately threw a shower of kunai, who Gaara didn't even take notice of, then she repeated the pain genjutsu, causing Gaara to scream again and was forced to let Sasuke-kun go. She immediately put herself between the two of them, and a look in her determined eyes caused something to Gaara's mind. Her medical studies made her think of a post-trauma flashback of some sort. Or, worse, the demon was trying to take full control!

A sudden crackle of the air and a beautiful white horse with a strange sparking horn rammed the side of Gaara. Sasuke, recovered from his experience, observed the summoned creature.

"Ixion... the Guardian of Lightning" said Naruto, who was looking really fatigued. He observed the summoned horse, and saw him dart around Gaara with impressive speed, shocking him and dancing around the sand.

"Sasuke, Ixion will soon use one of his lightning abilities that will strip him temporarily of his sand. Hit him with the strongest jutsu you know."

Sasuke smirked, imagining his Chidori in the heart of that monster.

Enraged by that slippery horse, Gaara transformed even further, assuming a bestial shape, only barely humanoid.

"Damn, I hope Ixion can get rid of that sand even now..." Naruto concentrated and opened the Wonder Gate even more, allowing Ixion to charge his horn and to launch its Aerospark, a chakra dispersing electrical attack. Its attack took the shape of a dual sphere of light that shoot at Gaara from two opposite directions, creating a cage of electricity on impact. The demon howled and most of his sand fell from his body in a cascade. Sasuke, as soon as he saw the results of the attack, charged his Chidori, sparking with the sound of thousands of screeching birds. With his incredible speed, he ran to the helpless Gaara, but the demon somehow managed to recover a bit more control of his sand and avoided a fatal shot to his heart with a sand pillar that forced Sasuke to change target, leaving his hand all the way through Gaara's left shoulder, snapping his bones and scorching his skin, splattering the sand with his blood. Pain was intolerable, and with an explosion that sent team 7 flying away, Shukaku, the sand demon, assumed his true appearance, even if he now had a body made just of sand. Gaara was visible at the very top of that monster's head, clutching his bleeding and broken shoulder in pain, trying to staunch the flow of blood by closing it with his sand.

* * *

That was it. Gaara had completely transformed, was incredibly pissed and probably won't lose time to use THAT technique. Temari didn't dare stay there any longer and fled the area at her maximum speed.

* * *

"We are in trouble!" said Sakura, looking up, and up and up to the enormous Tanuki.

Sasuke, too, was thinking desperately a plan to somehow survive the encounter. That sparking horse was still attacking the demon, but he barely managed to evade his strikes, now. Naruto looked too out of it to supply energy for another of those Aerospark things. He was, in fact, eating a soldier pill to recover faster.

Gaara threw scores of sand shuriken, tried desert coffins and claw swipes at Ixion, but he managed to avoid most of them. "Damn, Ixion is going to lose at this rate!" said Naruto, recovering his strength. The chakra in his inner coils was almost at maximum again after the fight with Neiji and the pill. His incredible stamina was also helping enormously in removing his fatigue derived from opening the Wonder Gate.

"_Damn, this isn't good. I'll have to summon Gamabunta, but I'll have to dismiss Ixion and close the Summoning Gates to do so! If only I had the time to recharge the Gates I could have used Thor's Hammer..._"

"We must somehow reach him!" said Sasuke looking at the human Gaara on the top of the Tanuki.

But then, a nightmare of a higher level entered the field. Gaara, tired of that slippery horse whose lightning charged horn was bothersome, decided to let the demon free.

"Ninpou, False Sleep Technique." and he slumped down.

"**Bwahahahaha! Free! I'm Free! And I have even someone to kill as soon as I am left out!**"

"That... doesn't look good..." said Naruto.

With a swipe of a talon, Shukaku captured Ixion, who managed to evade Gaara's swipes but couldn't avoid the demon in full control. Just squeezing his hand, he destroyed the physical form of Ixion, returning him to a pyrefly swarm.

"I have no choice, sorry 'bunta. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto dragged every bit of spare chakra he could drag from his coils and pushed most of it in the summoning jutsu, slamming his bleeding hand on the ground. A gigantic toad appeared under the feet of Team 7.

"What the?" asked Sasuke, not believing his eyes. He was on the head of a legendary summon, the boss of the toads, Gamabunta!

"Naruto, isn't that the Ichibi?" asked the surprised toad.

"Sorry Gamabunta-sama, but I had no choice, his vessel just relinquished his control to the demon and he squished Ixion like a grape, even when he was evading with everything he had!"

"It looks like bad news. Don't worry kid, I will help you."

Gamabunta extracted his sword, and launched himself at the ichibi, leaving the three genin to use chakra to remain glued to his head. They were awed by Gamabunta's skills and strength in his bout against the demon. A few minutes later, having adapted to staying on top of a fighting giant toad, they tried to think up a plan to help in the fight, but none came to mind. The demon was immune to all of Sakura's genjutsu, Sasuke's Chidori would be ineffective against the sand body of the demon since it was only a sand construct and Naruto was too low on chakra after both his summonings.

Shukaku suddenly stepped his attacks up a notch, and started using ninjutsu.  
"**Fuuton, Renkuudan!**" he said, slamming his own belly and blasting an enormous bullet of compressed air in their direction.

"We are going to jump, hold on tight!" yelled Gamabunta, moments before leaping high in the sky. The demon apparently expected the move, and shot another few Renkuudan at their new position in mid-air. Forced to counter them, Gamabunta used a water technique, Suiton: Teppodama, firing giant balls of water to collide with the demon's attacks.

"You missed one!" yelled Naruto. Sasuke didn't stay idle, he quickly completed a technique, and fired a Katon: Gokkyaku no Jutsu, the Supreme Fireball that he used on the very bell test against Kakashi to intercept it. The wind technique exploded in contact with it, pushing them away and slightly singing Gamabunta, but they escaped relatively unharmed. The demon's blast had so much chakra in it that even a large high C-ranked fire jutsu could not completely stop it.

"So one of you kids knows fire jutsu?"

"I do." said Sasuke, still panting from the effort.

"Shukaku is a wind elemental?" asked Naruto, surprised, since Kyubi's youki tested neutral on the chakra cards.

"I don't know, but he is famous for his wind techniques as well as his sand. Fire kid, prepare yourself, because as soon as he launches one of those wind techniques again, I want you to ignite my oil!"

Sasuke nodded, realizing Gamabunta's idea. Using a fire jutsu against one of those monster blasts would be dangerous just like he just demonstrated, but if they could somehow amplify his flames with the oil... it would gobble up his wind and amplify even further its power, roasting that damn tanuki demon back to hell.

"However that will only be a distraction to him. You must climb on the demon and wake up the medium. A punch will probably be enough if we hurry, but I am a toad; I have no claws or fangs to take hold of him to give you the time to do it, and I am no good at henge. One of you will have to mold the chakra for me."

"I'll do it!" said Sakura with no hesitation. With her confidence in her perfect chakra control built up by Ebisu sensei and his constant praise, she felt up to the task. And after the failure of most of her genjutsu and still nonexistent medical ones, she was happy to be able to contribute somehow to their survival.

Shukaku, with a roar, shot three more wind blasts in their direction, and they immediately started their combination attack. Sasuke used the Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu, as it was the most powerful fire Jutsu he knew, using all the chakra he could afford and fired it to the stream of oil coming out of Gamabunta's mouth. The result was spectacular. The burning oil, with the added wind blast as combustive element, blasted the sand monster, who screamed in "pain" even if Naruto asked himself how could a sand construct feel pain at all.

As soon as they could see again, the result was incredible. The woods were no more in a 3 hundred meters diameter, and would probably need firefighting squads to quench the remaining fire from propagating. A bed of glass was all that remained of a good half of the demon, but he was still alive and was slowly reforming. Team 7 plus Gamabunta were not going to let him.

"Now, girl!" yelled Gamabunta, and Sakura, whose mind still reeled from seeing the legendary toad who stood with the Fourth Hokage against the Kyuubi, chose that particular image and molded Gamabunta's chakra.

To the surprise of Naruto and Sasuke, they suddenly found themselves on top of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, complete of all nine tails, who attacked a shocked Shukaku and held him down, biting his neck and pinning him to the ground. Sasuke was on the verge of chakra exhaustion and it was too dangerous to take another soldier pill so soon, Sakura was keeping the henge, so Naruto alone jumped on the overgrown sand raccoon and threw a punch with all his might on Gaara's face, throwing him off Shukaku's sand form, waking him and making him crash on the ground. Naruto, off balance because of his continued fatigue, fell beside him, just barely managing to soften his landing.

"No... stay away!" yelled a frightened and still heavily bleeding Gaara. "My existence... will not be extinguished!"

Naruto realized that the blood loss from Sasuke's Chidori, even if somewhat stopped by the sand, had heavily weakened the boy. He probably had also a collapsed lung by how he was breathing strangely. Somehow this image and his overwhelming terror caused Naruto to truly pity him.

"You... don't have to be alone, Gaara." said Naruto, calmly walking to the demon container to disguise the fact he could barely stand at all. "Both of us have felt alone and hated by all the people we were near. But I have found people precious to me. My teammates, my teachers... and everyone in my village are my precious people, even if they still hate me. That is why I want to become Hokage! I won't let you kill them!"

"Why... do you say that?"

"Because they saved me from my hell, from my loneliness. And I'll try to save you from yours!"

Naruto opened the Initial Gate and let White Chakra drown his inner coils. A few minutes of concentration and he managed to open the Heal Gate, too, and took all his bloodline chakra and slammed it into Gaara's seal, who was too weak to protest, much less to stop him.

Gaara screamed in pain, going so far as trying to claw his eyes off just to let it end, but even all of Naruto's chakra at the peak of his strength and with all 8 open Gates wouldn't be enough to kill even the weakest of the Biju. His White Chakra, though, filtered in the seal and corroded away a good chunk of the demon's strength, who could not defend himself adequately because he was already weakened from the battle. His diminished youki potential would end up lessening the demon's hold on the container's mind. His chakra also ended up healing Gaara's body from the wounds acquired during the battle, including the hole in his shoulder and probably the lung, too.

Sakura, who had helped the now unconscious Sasuke reach the ground, was looking at Naruto, with a strange and unreadable expression on her face.

"How... I … I can no longer hear … mother.." said a shocked Gaara.

"It was Shukaku, it wasn't your mother, Gaara." said Naruto. "I have purified a portion of his youki, weakening him, so the seal now can contain him better. And even without his voice, I don't think you are truly alone." he said, when from the woods Temari and Kankuro appeared. Kankuro looked rather beat up, but worried nonetheless.

Naruto collapsed after that speech, from chakra exhaustion, leaving Sakura alone with his two incapacitated teammates, eerily reminiscent of the second test.

Temari and Kankuro simply observed the scene and took Gaara with them leaving team 7 alone (and a bit awed of their strength, they DID manage to beat Gaara, after all!)

Gamabunta himself nodded and told Sakura: "I'm out of chakra, pink one. Say to the other two that I look forward to have a drink with all three of you when you get a bit older, and that it was a magnificent battle."

"I will, Gamabunta-sama."

With a smoke explosion, Gamabunta returned home.

"Well, now I just have to find out how to bring them back all by myself!" said a dejected Sakura...

* * *

"Kankuro, Temari.. thank you..." Gaara said, thanking his siblings for probably the first time in their memory.

"Uh... you are welcome, Gaara." said a nervous Kankuro. He looked at Temari and saw confusion as well in her eyes.

Temari, meanwhile, was thanking her lucky star for her continued survival after the full manifestation of Gaara's demon for the second time.


	16. Smoking ruins

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 16: Smoking ruins

by Chronodt

Naruto awoke in a cot, in a hospital corridor. Turning his head, he could see Sasuke nearby, while Sakura-chan was sitting beside them both, her empty cot nearby.

It was just day outside, so he slept at least 16 hours.

Then he remembered. The invasion! The barrier! And lastly, Gaara and the ichibi!

"Naruto, you awake?" asked Sakura, in a low voice to not wake up either Sasuke or the other people sleeping nearby.

"Yeah, just now." answered the blond at the same volume. He raised his head to look around. The hospital was overcrowded, wounded or just overworked people in cots like his littered everywhere.

"You were just lightly injured and a bit short of chakra, so they had to give you just these." she pointed to his makeshift bedding. "Sasuke-kun, too, had only light injuries. We were very lucky, yesterday."

"Yes, I agree." said Sasuke. Apparently their voices despite being rather low, woke him, too.

"Not everyone can say they managed to best one of the tailed beasts, though! Even less coming out of it with just a single hospital night!" said Naruto, smiling widely.

"Yes, it's true!" agreed Sakura.

"Hn.." was a pseudo-agreement of Sasuke.

"Now, dobe, explain yourself. How could you have the toad contract AND whatever that horse contract was?" said a curious Sasuke.

Naruto sighed. "Not here." he said, looking at all the resting people. "At the next team meeting, while we wait for Kakashi, at the usual bridge. If they let us out, that is."

"Yesterday evening a medic-nin told me we could go home as soon as we woke up. Luckily neither of you used so much chakra to need observation, and with all the injured in the battle they can't afford to monitor middle chakra exhaustion, so they'll let you go to rest in your own beds for the next 2 days. Kakashi-sensei will ask for a debriefing when we go out, most likely."

"How did we get here, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, curious, since he didn't remember leaving the battlefield.

"Asuma-sensei found us just as I was building some kind of carrier. He doused the remaining fires and carried the both of you here. I gave him a preliminary report of the chase, too. I also found out that Shikamaru is safe and sound, just probably as tired as you two are."

Sasuke nodded, while trying his range of movements. His chakra levels were still very low and his body stiff, but he could walk home even now. To see this many injured in a single place was opening old wounds and right now he didn't need a reminder of that night, or he'd end up training all day despite his current condition.

"I'm going home. Remember what your said, dobe. Tomorrow I want the whole story."

Naruto nodded. Sakura seemed divided, and Naruto helped her by saying in a low voice: "He won't ask for help, Sakura-chan, but he is in a worse condition than me. Go with him."

Sakura, gratefully, went to the Uchiha.

Naruto sighed. Without the protection of his teammates it wasn't worthwhile to stay in the hospital, so he too rose and left the building. He hoped his apartment still stood after the battle or it would be hard to get his things...

* * *

Despite Sakura's words, none of them actually saw Kakashi, but then Naruto didn't really expect to see him. As a jonin who had his whole genin team hospitalized he had probably been drafted to do some missions. As he approached his apartment, he suddenly remembered Akiko's bets. A wide smile returned on his face thinking about the 14,000 ryo he just made from Neiji's humiliation. He just hoped the invasion wouldn't cancel the result of the matches. He was also worried for the … for Hokage-sama. And... _Mom!_

Naruto suddenly realized he hadn't contacted his mother, yet, so he summoned a pyrefly by cracking open the Death Gate.

-_Naruto-chan, so you are alright, that's a relief. There have been a lot of Leaf shinobi coming here yesterday and they told us of the invasion..._-

Naruto lowered his head thinking of all those lives lost. Deciding that he didn't want to make people think he was as mad as Gaara, he replied mentally to the pyrefly.

-_After I humiliated Neiji like I planned, during Sasuke's fight Sand and Sound attacked. Sasuke went off to chase Gaara and Kakashi sensei ordered Sakura, Shikamaru and me to follow him and stop the chase. But we arrived too late, Gaara was already starting to let Shukaku free. Shikamaru had to remain behind to stop two squads of pursuers and so it was Gaara against my team. We kicked his ass, of course! And after we beat him, I managed to cripple Shukaku by slamming two Gates worth of White Chakra into his seal! He told me he could no longer hear the demon, so it worked._-

-_That was dangerous, Naruto-chan. Gaara could have died for it, you know? If the demon wasn't already weak from the battle he could have fought you and his youki could have filtered into Gaara's coils, killing him._-

-_It was... instinctual, mom. I have no idea even how I did it, but I knew it was the right thing to do._-

-_I see..._-

-_By the way mom... did the old man..._-

-_**Hokage-sama**__ is safe and well, Naruto-chan. A couple ANBU that died told us that after you destroyed the barrier, the simulacrum of the first two Hokage fought tooth and nail to cover the snake's escape, but the impure resurrection technique Orochimaru used to bring back the Shodaime and the Nidaime didn't last long without its caster._-

-_Impure resurrection?_-

-_It's a forbidden technique that allows, by sacrificing a living human, to channel the memories and skills of a dead person. It requires also some particular ash created from the earthly remains of the deceased to bring back that would coat the sacrifice, replicating the summoned person's appearance and gear, too, so Hokage-sama had to fight his old sensei, from his viewpoint._-

-_I see..._-

-_Now, Naruto-chan, I want a complete recount of your battles. Be aware that I can check with Carbuncle and Ixion if you embellish too much!_-

Naruto sweatdropped, but proceeded to relate both his awesome fights to his mother.

* * *

Itachi observed Konoha from a hill, looking for a moment to the curiosity sparking in his companion, Kisame.

"So we're not going in?" asked the shark-looking man.

"There is no need for it. Our target will leave sooner or later. We are not to start a war." replied Itachi. And it was true. After learning of the survival and almost perfect health of the Sandaime despite Orochimaru's trap, he had no need to remind those Elders that he still existed...

* * *

Jiraya watched as his old sensei stormed angrily through the paperwork. Seeing his benevolent old teacher in such a foul mood was indeed rare, but after 3 hours with Danzo and his old teammates he supposed couldn't blame him. The old coot tried to pin the blame of the invasion completely on his peace ideals, without considering that 2/3 of Konoha's highest level ninja were either incapacitated or dead, while his personal troops, who by the way didn't make an appearance in the battle, were completely intact. Naturally Danzo would never admit of their existence, but Jiraya knew and naturally the Hokage knew, but had no proof.

"We need Tsunade here, Jiraya. We have too many injured and I still need a new successor. I'll train her for the job while she directs the medical corps."

"She will never agree to it, sensei."

"I have been too lenient with her, Jiraya. On this, at least, Danzo was right. It's time for her to return here. She has mourned long enough. We can no longer afford to keep her valuable knowledge away from our hospital. Tell her I'll agree to her medical program she insisted on years ago."

"So resorting to both carrot and stick, eh? Not bad, sensei. But I fear it won't be enough. I'll still try, though. But what about Naruto?"

"What about him?"

"I'll have to leave the village to search for Tsunade, and from both Asuma and Kakashi's report they are at a critical point in their teamwork. If I take him away from them now, it may ruin all their progress."

The aging Hokage sighed. And relaxed on his chair.

"Tsunade is the highest priority, and Kakashi has been chastised about his behavior toward Naruto and Sakura. I think you can leave him a month or two to Kakashi and Ebisu. He still has many troubles with basics that Iruka can close in your stead, too. When you return he will more likely be ready for your exclusive instruction and you can take him away."

"Damn, I wanted to begin teaching him his father's technique!" said Jiraya.

"Kakashi knows it as well, Jiraya, you know..."

"Alright, alright, you win. But I'll teach the brat how to train to perform the first stage first. Kakashi can continue his training until I get back. In a month I should have at least a guess of where the princess is now and I can take the brat with me. I'm pretty sure she will be really interested in at least supervising the training of Kushina's son, and I may me able to bring her back with me with such a carrot."

The Hokage nodded, satisfied.

"About the exams, what is the official verdict?" asked Jiraya, curious, since he couldn't see it personally.

"Since it was interrupted mid-way, I insisted for the judges to vision the preliminaries' recordings, too, to see which of the 8 finalists will actually be promoted. Of the leaf, I think they will be Shino Aburame, Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki. But I think they will promote also Sasuke Uchiha, for both security and political reasons."  
"I agree, they cannot afford for him to become jealous of his teammate if they want him to keep his status as the last **loyal** Uchiha. During chunin protocols training he will probably realize that his new rank gives him eligibility to the hunter-nin ranks and their specialized training as soon as he reaches the required seniority."

"Yes, even if it pains me, allowing him a position that will train him to satisfy his most cherished ambition will keep him loyal, hopefully."

Jiraya nodded, and as he turned to leave, Sarutobi suddenly said: "Good luck in your mission, Jiraya. And be careful with her, we don't want you to be added to the casualty lists."

Jiraya scoffed a bit, but laughingly agreed with his old teacher.

* * *

Akiko whistled, in her pocket was a bank receipt for her little bet. 14,000 ryo was a really nice sum of money. With the aftermath of the battle, she would probably be able to buy a nice apartment, from people who were actually moving out of Konoha. She saw more than one family gather their things and pack away to destinations unknown. They were probably civilians who forgot they lived in a ninja village, with the ever-present danger of a war on a moment's notice. Even better for her, though, because property became really cheap in such situations! Even if her parents HAD had properties (a house who was destroyed during the fox's attack) she could not get it until she made jonin, and still had to rebuild the house. Until she had a family of her own, she would prefer a small apartment to live in comfortably.

Even if the Boss was still a little tired after yesterday's battle, he could easily create dozens of clones just to find a new and nicer place to live in. He would just lay off training for today and lie in bed, while Akiko herself and various other anonymous clones would scour Konoha looking for the perfect home within her new budget, obviously!

* * *

Naruto arrived at the bridge, bright and early the next morning. He was early, but both of his teammates were already there. They knew Kakashi would make them wait at least an hour, though...

"Ok, dobe. Speak." said Sasuke, not wasting any time. Sakura, too, was extremely curious, but wasn't as direct as him. He had a whole day and a couple of suggestions from his mother to make up a slightly altered story that would keep his ability to communicate with her a secret. If fact, it was the best kept secret in the Clan, otherwise anyone who had a dead loved one would hound them to pass messages from and to dead people. It would ruin their life, almost literally.

"After Wave's battle, Sasuke... you … weren't the only one to activate a bloodline."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. Sakura, too, was surprised.

"I didn't know about it, so it isn't strange no one of you knew either. The Uzumaki Clan was native of Uzu no Kuni, the Whirlpool country and only a single member of this clan ever came here in Konoha, and it was my mother, Uzumaki Kushina. All this information is confidential until I become a jonin, but I have permission from the Hokage to tell the two of you. Only a few of the high-rank ninja alive around the time of the last war were aware of her bloodline abilities."

"What does it do?" asked Sakura, now curious in an academic sense.

"My chakra is... different. It has enormous healing and purification properties and in addition of a n automatic ability to heal myself rapidly almost to the point of regeneration, my clan learned to make use of it to create powerful healing jutsu. They called our bloodline White Chakra and jutsu derived from its healing properties White Jutsu."

"So it was those jutsu you used to heal Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura, putting clues together.

"Yes, I purified his chakra from whatever that seal was doing to him and I healed the damage his body took. I only know the most basic of the healing jutsu, so it was a good thing he didn't have any serious injury."

"As if I would have let him..." said Sasuke, with a bit of arrogance.

"For the summons, well, the toad ones are normal ninja summons. Jiraya, one of the Legendary three ninja found my interest in seals... intriguing and literally kidnapped me to train me for the exam. He said he had a bit of time, knew my mother well enough to know of her bloodline and is the toad summoner of Konoha. He was a slave driver and a monumental pervert, but a good teacher: he told me that summoning techniques were the specialty of my clan, because all of us had really large chakra reserves, ideal for that technique. Even then, to summon Gamabunta I have to be almost at full power."

Sasuke looked at the distance, impassible, while Sakura was making some kind of mental calculations. "If you have to use almost all of your chakra to summon Gamabunta-sama... how did you manage to do that after summoning that electric horse, too?"

"It is... another peculiarity of White Chakra on my body. Do you remember Gai and Kakashi sensei's lecture on the Celestial Gates?"

Sasuke returned his gaze on Naruto, while Sakura's eyes widened like plates. "You didn't..."

"My body actually nullifies almost all effects from opening the Gates, both positives and negatives. The healing properties of my chakra replaces the limiting effect of the Gates, but I didn't open the Initial Gate at all during the fight. My White Chakra allows me to open the Gates in the reverse order without dieing, and use the chakra freed from the Gate to summon a … well you can call it a particular bunshin of powerful creatures my clan made contracts with in the past. The fact is, that the place those creature live in is only reachable through the Death Gate, by summoning some sort of energy creatures called pyreflyes, that live as symbiont with chakra itself. This is one of them."

Naruto opened slightly the Death Gate and summoned a pyrefly. Sakura looked at it with stars in her eyes, she was probably thinking it was really pretty. Sasuke was probably just examining its danger levels.

"To summon one, I just cracked open my Death Gate, used a bit of my White Chakra leaked from it to touch the barrier between our world and the summon's world and called one of them out. Pyrefly exist normally everywhere there is chakra, including our inner coils, but only pyreflyes summoned this way can be used both by me and the Guardians. The Guardians by imprinting their templates and powers and me by calling them here, supplying them power and directing their actions. Since I must supply them power through that particular channel, I can only use the chakra from the Gates in the reverse order, that means Death Gate first, then as I deplete it, I must open the Wonder Gate and so on. That is why no one else may summon them. Doing so would be a suicide for anyone not a bloodline member of the Uzumaki Clan."

Sasuke nodded. Even if he could not copy that technique, it was just a variation of a normal summon and he could find others better suited for his vengeance. And those healing jutsu could be useful. Yesterday had been a good example.

"What creatures can you summon?" asked Sakura.

"I have contacted just Carbuncle and Ixion. Carbuncle is an expert in defenses and shields and Ixion is fast, agile and lightning natured. There are many others, but I must contact each of them separately, gain their trust and learn most of their abilities before I can contact another one. Now I'm learning how to ride Ixion. Carbuncle instead taught me how to summon the Summoning Glaive, a weapon that allows me to call on my family summons with much less energy than ordinary."

"Do you know how to use it?" asked Sakura.

"I barely managed to summon it before the finals!" laughed Naruto, "I could not even afford the effort to summon it during the battle so I was forced to keep it on all day, and I have absolutely no idea on how to effectively wield it as a weapon. As of right now, it is only a fancy summoning aid."

"You went on the chunin finals with a weapon you didn't even know how to use?" asked Sasuke, amused. "You really are the dead last." There was more amusement than malice in Sasuke's tone.

"Well, I couldn't afford to spend all my chakra to summon, and even if I didn't use it how most people thought I would, it still had its original use. Learning how to impale someone with it will come later. And I still have to finish all genin-level White Jutsu. I know Cure, that heals superficial wounds, Esuna, that heals most of the unbalances of the body; everything the body recognizes as an 'enemy', be it poison, genjutsu, corrupted chakra, this jutsu will get rid of it. As a rule of thumb, if the body in time can cure it, this jutsu will do it in a couple second for you. After that I know Scan, a jutsu that allows me to gather combat information on an enemy before me. That is how I gathered the information on Gaara. I also know a barrier jutsu able to completely nullify a single ninjutsu attack from a single element of any magnitude, and I'm learning genjutsu so I can learn two hybrid genjutsu/ninjutsu Haste and Slow. Slow is almost pure genjutsu, altering the perception of time of the victim in a way that he feels like he has been weighted down and Haste increases reaction speed and muscle efficiency for a brief period, should be extremely useful. Most of my family jutsu are just healing or support just like these. Luckily, summons add to the offensive arsenal nicely."

"Healing and support, eh?" said Sakura, deep in though, while Sasuke was thinking that they were worthless for him to have, but they were still good to have around, just like his seals. Self-healing wasn't bad but he much preferred having his sharingan rather than that. Still, even it it was just a minor bloodline compared to his, it made Naruto's usefulness to him ten times higher than before. Now it was just a matter of finding a niche for the fangirl, too. She started using genjutsu and with her weak body it wasn't a bad idea. With the actual team configuration, he would be the main attacker with Sakura as background support and Naruto as both supplementary attack, scouting and decoy(to keep pests away from his battle), and support, with healing and defensive jutsu. Last battle showed clearly his role: even if Naruto threw the last punch, his Chidori turned around the flow of the whole battle in their favor, with the support of the summon's jutsu, as well as his fire attacks improved by Gamabunta's oil. He really felt satisfaction in seeing the ichibi reduced to a half-melted slab of glass, and felt that fighting and even defeating an enemy normally so above his power made him stronger. Orochimaru's power has been only a crutch, until now, a crutch his teammate had been able to alleviate very easily. Until he finds a way to get rid of it, at least.

Kakashi sensei chose that moment to arrive, and after his usual lame excuse for his lateness asked for a more detailed report of the mission. Naruto was really enthusiastic about it, with many corrections from Sakura. Still, it didn't save them from the d-rank missions who followed, but the village really needed help in rebuilding.

Smoking ruins were a bad image for the village...


	17. Rebuilding

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 17: Rebuilding

by Chronodt

Naruto looked at his new apartment. It was in a nice area, even if a few scorch mark here and there reminded him of the battle. Even if this area did not see heavy damage, it had been enough to frighten a small family to leave the village with haste. Now he had a two-bedroom home with a kitchen, a small furo and even a living room! It was a wonderful step-up from his old apartment! And it cost him just 12,000 ryo!

He immediately proceeded to fortify it with seals and traps, including an e-rank seal of his own creation (he was REALLY proud of it!) that wouldn't allow fresh paint to stick to a wall, to avoid vandalism should any of his haters discover where he moved to. He applied it everywhere on the outside of the apartment complex just to make sure his new neighbors would not be forced to pick on him by such childish actions as writing "demon" on the walls. Ero-sennin even supervised his placement of seals and offered useful suggestions, saying it could be required from him in the future in a mission. But the pervert was hiding something from him, he was sure of it! He was especially perplexed by the large box of water balloons he gave him. Nothing good would come from it, especially with the evil grin that came with the gift!

Nice furniture would cost him an additional 1500 ryo, but he was prepared for the expense and in the end he had as much money as when he started, but he no longer had to pay rent and he could afford to go to Ichiraku's more often, now!

Mom liked the place, too, and made a lot of useful suggestions to furnish it. His neighbors were also nice people, a couple of them even saw him in the chunin finals and were actually happy to see him. Could it be that he finally managed to get though all that pigheadedness about him being the fox?

* * *

"Forehead!" saluted Ino with a playful tone, as soon as she saw Sakura walking toward her.

"Ino-pig!" replied Sakura, with the same tone.

"Is it true, Sakura?" asked Ino, turning serious.

"What about, Ino?"

"That your team defeated a demon during the invasion! Asuma-sensei said he saw the tail end of it with his own eyes!"

"If he did he could have helped us!" said an exasperated Sakura. "He probably just saw the 100 meters tall sand raccoon and Gamabunta from the distance. He came just as I was trying to find a way to carry back Sasuke-kun and Naruto. And no, it was not a 'true' demon. Apparently Gaara was merely the container of one of the legendary Biju, the one-tail, to be exact, but the seal containing him was faulty..."

"So the demon took over?" asked Ino, now really intrigued.

"Not exactly... Gaara _let_ it out. The demon apparently was able to speak to Gaara constantly and, passing himself as his mother, convinced him to be let free to ravage us and the village while he was at it, using sand to build a facsimile of his original body. Fortunately, somehow Naruto fixed his seal after we beat him."

"_Naruto_ fixed it?" asked a surprised Ino.

"Don't you remember the way he won the preliminaries? He is studying seals under a seal master, now, and has been for the whole month before the finals."

"Yeah, I still have to reel my head around the idea of a no longer useless Naruto." said Ino, wishing that her teammates, too, stopped being lazy asses.

"You are telling me.." said a sad Sakura. "I find him really strange, lately. He even stopped asking me out, I didn't think something like that could ever happen, but it did."

"So he finally wised up? It was time, really. He should have known from the start you weren't worth anything!" said Ino with a joking smirk.

Sakura's gaze probably would have killed Ino on the spot had she met it.

"Well, Ino-pig, at least now that he doesn't bother me anymore, Sasuke-kun is free to admire _me_!"

"As if, Forehead! He is probably just enjoying not having to hear your shrills each time you punch Naruto like you were a gorilla!"

Ino smirked, seeing Sakura flinch. Ino 1 - Sakura 0

Sakura, with a sniff retreated with what remained of her dignity. Ino considered it a victory, and had a new bit of juicy gossip to share, too!

* * *

Akiko was worried. The rumors of their fight with Gaara were getting out of control. They were of any kind, and she tried very hard on doing damage control. Fortunately, she had a pristine reputation and was actually believed when she told the greatest gossipers of Konoha that she read the report of the first jonin to reach the battlefield (Sarutobi Asuma, naturally) and could tell a more truthful version of what happened to correct them. She didn't need a pitchfork mob trying to kill the Boss, not really! If she let those awful crones continue weaving up those tales with such horrible lies, the original Naruto would end up driven away from Konoha. Luckily all those d-rank missions rebuilding the village were helping his reputation, as well as his public battle with Neiji showed them he didn't need the fox's power for anything, not that he would be able to for much longer...

It took her many many hours to track down the sources of the malicious gossip and silence them by publicly humiliating them without pranks and with a different face, naturally, better not draw the ire of those gossip to Akiko or the Boss. With those slanderers silenced and labeled as liars, Naruto's reputation was slowly recovering as more and more people were getting to know the truth. It was too late for any past defamations, though.

Akiko asked herself how long this kind of slander has been going on, and promised herself to investigate. This could ruin Boss's chance of becoming Hokage, after all!

* * *

"Ok, brat, time to teach you what you'll be doing while I'm out of the village!" said the Super Pervert, as soon as Naruto finished putting up the seals on his apartment.

"This was one of your father's prized jutsu, one half of his invincible combo. A pity the other half is now completely lost, he never wrote it down..." said a sad Jiraya, while Naruto hid a smug grin. Since he had access to his mother, it would be easy for him to get his hands on that jutsu, as soon as his father deemed him worthy of it, naturally. It was a pity he couldn't talk to him directly, but he promised himself he would... 'write' him a letter to get to know him, too.

"To execute the Rasengan, you must perform 3 training steps. I will show you just the first one until I return, and only once, so keep your eyes sharp!"

Jiraya took one of those rubber balloons, filled it with water and proceeded to make it explode in a strange way. The balloon bulged everywhere before breaking apart in a shower of water.

"When you can do it as easily as breathing you'll have mastered this exercise. And use **no more than one clone**, I want you to understand the underlying principle more then the actual technique. And don't be discouraged if it takes you too long to learn this technique, it is an A-rank one, it will be harder than anything you tried before! As a hint, I'll tell you that you have to spin the water with just your chakra."

"Alright, Ero-sennin! I will master this part before you come back! Believe it!"

"And for the true you, in this scroll are the next five kata I want you to learn. I want you to master at least two of them! And don't use clones!"

"I learned it THAT time!" sulked Naruto, still remembering how sore he had been the last time he had to perform hours after hours of 'remedial' kata practicing.

"However.. why are you teaching me an A-rank technique?" asked a curious Naruto. Never before had Ero-sennin taught him a technique so powerful.

"You need something of an ace, and you have reached a sufficient chakra control to manage this jutsu. Be careful with it, once you have mastered it. Your battle with Shukaku, but especially how you ended it, has showed me that you can be trusted with such a jutsu, so don't disappoint me!" said the pervert, making Naruto almost teary-eyed. No one … living... has showed him such a level of trust, yet! Even if he was a pervert, he gladly put him in his most precious people category just for that!

"Thank you, Jiraya-sensei!" said a grateful Naruto, calling Jiraya with his name for the first time. The pervert noticed it, but didn't reply.

"Alright, brat. I'm going now, so start training!"

Naruto nodded and started filling water balloons, while a clone tried to figure out how to repeat that strange wobbling of Jiraya's balloon. The original, then, after filling a dozen or so, started reading the scroll.

Jiraya left Naruto's apartment and soon after left the village.

* * *

Hinata was worried.

Her Naruto-kun left the apartment he lived in for most of his life, and after a whole month of being too sick to be able to look at the boy who could inspire her such courage, she really wanted to meet him. She wanted to thank him for his help and encouragement during the preliminaries, for all the times he came to her in the hospital.. and... and...

Who was she kidding... she would never find the courage to speak to him. At most she would look at him from afar unable to overcome her shyness and approach. And now she was even unable to find him. The doctors forbade her any kind of chakra exercise until next week after that little sick spell in the arena, and that included activating her byakugan unless her life was in danger.

"Hinata!" said a loud voice beside her. Her teammate, Kiba was hurrying along with Akamaru with a sack of dog food in his arms. He was probably grocery shopping.

"Yo, Hinata, you all right?" asked the boy.

"Y-yes, Kiba-kun. I... was looking for Naruto-kun, but he moved away."

"What for?" asked Kiba, slightly miffed.

"I... I wanted to..."

"Ok, ok, don't worry. We'll find him. Akamaru!"

The small white dog barked and after leaving the sack at his home, in about ten minutes they managed to find out the location of Naruto's new apartment. They knocked, and to the surprise of all, including Naruto himself, they went in.

"Hinata, Kiba! Good to see you!" said Naruto, putting away the balloons. The original was outside practicing his katas, but he could be the host for his first friends at his new apartment.

"Wow, got a new place, Naruto?" said Kiba, looking around. "There are still the smells of the previous occupants. It looks nice, though."

"Y-yes, Naruto-kun, it really looks nice." said a blushing Hinata.

"Well, I asked a friend to bet most of my money on my victory in the first match, and I won enough that I could afford to buy myself a flat! Really cheaply, too, because it belonged to civilians who found life in a Hidden Village too dangerous all of a sudden."

"Damn! I could have thought about it, too!" said Kiba, dejected.

"W-would you have left your family, too?" asked Hinata. Strangely, it almost seemed like she would love to be allowed to do such a thing.

"Uh, no.. But I would have won good money, though!"

Naruto laughed.

They talked for a couple hours about their training, the invasion and various small topics. Due to Akiko listening to gossip he had plenty of things to share, for once.

Hinata was feeling dragged along by both boys' enthusiasm and managed to open herself a little to Naruto. It was just a baby step, but it was a good first step, too.

Floating in the ceiling, from a pyrefly hidden there, Kushina observed and giggled a little at the dear timid girl who clearly was deeply smitten with her son. Her husband better deliver soon on that solution for the Caged Bird, or else...

* * *

Iruka was pleased of Naruto's progress. His most glaring educational holes were mostly being filled at a quick pace and he was struggling to find a topic where his instruction was necessary. Naruto had already read all geography and history books he assigned him, as well as math and an accounting instruction book to help him keep track of his finances. Ebisu will take over genjutsu lessons as soon as he would reach genin level. About seals Naruto was better than him, he had no illusions about it. Someone also apparently taught him the very basic of protocol and etiquette, and he probably would give some extra lessons just to make sure they stuck. The only thing he could need that he was allowed to teach would be survival training: Naruto told him he read a book about edible plants and animals, but he needed a bit more practicals. His taijutsu required a lot more work, but he personally didn't know the style Jiraya-sama was teaching him, so he could not help with it.

"Naruto, I don't have much more I can help you with. You are rapidly approaching the level of knowledge you should have had at the exit of the Academy."

Naruto nodded, he too came at the same conclusion a few days ago. He was actually tired to read all those bland books, but both Iruka-sensei and his mother insisted they were useful to a future Hokage.

"I have just enough material for three weeks, at most. After that you won't need me anymore, not as a teacher, at least." said the scarred chunin, with a smile. Even if he would miss seeing Naruto so often, now he had those free evenings back to relax...

"Thank you for your efforts, Iruka-sensei. I'm really grateful!"

Iruka again marveled and promised himself to find and thank whoever managed to pound a little respect into the boy. It was simply incredible.

"And let me offer you dinner, Iruka-sensei, for all your lessons!" continued Naruto.

Iruka changed his mind, he would erect a statue in honor of that person...he or she managed a miracle!

* * *

Days passed fast while Konoha was being rebuilt by the combined efforts of its inhabitants. From civilians to the highest levels. Team 7 was often occupied in the rebuilding effort and had to manage without their leader, occupied in high level missions for the village. That didn't mean he left them without training, because he left them scrolls with long and detailed exercises for each of them. Sparring with Sasuke was really hard, because the boy had improved much more than Naruto in taijutsu, who was still a beginner in the Whirlwind Strike style the old pervert was teaching him. With the revelation of a self-healing bloodline, Sasuke didn't often bother to cushion his blows and often commented that Naruto was becoming the best dummy he ever had. Sometimes he really wanted to strangle that damn Uchiha. Still, fighting with him quickly helped to find and close the most glaring holes in his defense, passing from a 10 seconds defeat into almost 30. He noticed Sasuke once trying to use his style, copied from the sharingan, but he quickly guessed Sasuke wasn't suited to it because his movements were even more ungraceful than his. Sakura, too, was improving fast and her stamina skyrocketed after Kakashi ordered her to go swimming a few hours in the lake every day.

Naruto managed to get quickly the solution on how to let the balloon explode, after a lucky realization thanks to a neighbor's cat, and was now training to get the multiple rotations right with the use of a single hand just like the pervert did. It was much harder than he expected but he wouldn't give up. It was also a wonderful chakra control exercise, the next step above water walking.

Hinata and Kiba came to his new apartment a few more times, too, and once they managed to drag even Shino. Hinata was still as strange as ever, but she was a little less timid each time she visited. Her mother, too, was really strange after each of their visits. What was she hinting to? Why would coming here constitute training for Hinata?

* * *

"What the?" exclaimed Sasuke, during the latest Sasuke-Naruto sparring match. Despite his sharingan spinning he felt slow and sluggish, just after some white colored chakra from the dobe managed to catch him.

"I did it!" yelled Naruto, stopping the match to jump in joy. Sasuke realized it was some kind of genjutsu, but didn't behave like an usual one. Then he remembered the two hybrid genjutsu/ninjutsu Naruto told them he was trying to learn.

"So you learned that 'Slow' genjutsu, eh, dobe? This may make a sparring match with you finally somewhat near a warm-up rather that punching a training dummy!" said Sasuke with a smirk. It was a really good jutsu, he tried to dispel it but it was somewhat similar to tar, it wouldn't dislodge from his coils, but it was dissipating at a constant pace. Three minutes is probably the limit of this genjutsu, but may make the difference between life and death against an enemy. Sakura, too, was using her beginner's medical jutsu to examine Sasuke's coils, and said: "So, it uses the peculiarity of your chakra to regenerate the link to the chakra coils if it gets disconnected. Trying to simply dispel it just reduces its activation time, to get rid of it you must search and destroy the construct in your own coils. Genial! A self-healing genjutsu construct! Probably only the byakugan can easily counter this one! And you say this is only considered a d-rank technique?"

"Yes, the self replicating effect is naturally inborn in my White Chakra, so that is the easiest part. Unfortunately that particular effect can only be employed on those jutsu and their stronger forms because they are the results of generations of work studying the chakra circulatory system and the human nervous system. In the scrolls I possess there isn't a detailed explanation on how to create such genjutsu, just a detailed description of what the final construct must 'feel' like. If I had a higher attitude for genjutsu rather than ninjutsu I would have learned this more easily then the elemental shields."

Sasuke's thoughts were reeling at the idea of a genjutsu his sharingan could not pierce, but he realized he probably couldn't pierce the mangekyo sharingan's Tsukuyomi either. It would be a good training, though, trying to evade it, even if they ended up being too dissimilar. And being slowed down would make the dead last more of a challenge.

"Ok, dobe. Every other day that we spar, you'll try to use constantly that jutsu on me, to make it more of a challenge. And I'll try to both dispel and avoid it, to make it harder for you."

Naruto nodded, it would help him, too. Having tried Slow himself, in a sparring match with a clone, he could confirm that it was similar to the effect of being submerged in water. Sasuke could get a little more challenge and Naruto could try to cast a genjutsu in close combat and try to pummel a slowed Sasuke. Not that he won even with that help...

* * *

A Naruto clone, in disguise as a civilian teenager, calmly talked with Yochimi, the butcher's wife, about the latest rumors regarding the Boss. He was getting close to the source of the badmouthing and was being careful about it. In fact, he often changed appearance to avoid unpleasant consequences. He was still miffed at the discovery of a source of lies about the Boss (and himself, too) that displayed him as a living monster, fomenting the hate and promoting bashings. After he heard a dozen of those stories, that apparently have been around for months or even years, Naruto wasn't feeling very magnanimous. He was even planning to plant evidence of that person being a spy paid by someone (who, depended on the identity of the slanderer) to smear him, and then be publicly exposed.

Whoever it was, he or she covered well its tracks. What he planned on doing could even be the truth, from the effort that person took in not being traced back, but he would not rest, he could not afford such negative publicity in his quest to become Hokage!

* * *

Two weeks after the departure of the pervert, he received an official summon from the Hokage, to present himself the next morning at 8:00 in his office. It was also written with expensive paper and with a lot of stiff formalities. Could it be? The exam results? He really couldn't wait for tomorrow!


	18. Exam results

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 18: Exam results

by Chronodt

Naruto walked in the Hokage's office and he noted it was full with the usual mountains of paper, but they seemed to be even bigger than usual. Was all that paperwork a result of the reconstruction effort?

Beside him, there were other 3 people: Aburame Shino, Nara Shikamaru and Uchiha Sasuke.

Each of them was excited.... well, not really. Shikamaru was annoyed, Shino was unreadable and Sasuke was grinning widely. Just like him, each of them reached the same conclusion as him: they passed the exam. It took a monumental effort to restrain himself and adhere to the protocol long enough to let the Hokage talk.

"Well, I must say this is not a good moment for the village, but congratulations to all of you, who have distinguished yourselves in the chunin exam enough to impress the judges of your worthiness on being invested with the chunin rank. We really are in need of your talents, too, so I hope you can forgive an old man of keeping this speech short." he looked at Naruto, asking himself how had he managed to stay still all this time, and continuing. "As a rookie chunin you'll have to endure two weeks of lessons about your new duties and rights, at the end of which you'll be given the flak vest that is almost universally considered a symbol of the rank." he said with a smile. Then, looking specifically at Naruto, he said: "The participation to that course is mandatory. Skipping out without a crippling injury or a critical reason will forfeit your promotion. There is no final test, but failure to comply to a chunin-level protocol after the completion will net you heavy punishments, so it is in your best interest to learn everything they teach you. You'll present yourselves each morning at 7:00 at the Academy, room 205. During those two weeks you won't be allowed to take any mission unless I assign you one personally. Any questions? No? Then you are dismissed."

The four almost-chunin said "Yes, Hokage-sama", then left the office.

As soon as he was outside, Naruto could contain no longer his enthusiasm. He yelled and jumped his happiness to the world, to the dismay of the other rookie chunin, who tried to ignore him. Shino apparently managed to quietly slip away while nobody was watching, while Shikamaru moaned and could be heard speaking about "Troublesome blonds, every one of them.". Sasuke was resigned, instead, as he had had the longest time to get accustomed to Naruto's quirks.

* * *

"It seems all of them reacted well to the news." said the Hokage to the hidden jonin sensei of the four promoted genin.

"Yes, but was it wise to promote the Uchiha?" asked Kurenai. "Even if from previous reports he was a flight risk, especially with that cursed seal, promoting him just to not let it flee away..."

"Yes, I, too, had reservations on it, but I have observed team 7 these past two weeks." said the Hokage. Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Even if they had no supervision, they still were training together. The battle with the ichibi apparently made them closer than I expected." observed the aged man. "Sasuke has, probably for the first time, begun considering his teammates as someone worthy of his respect, which was the only remaining factor in my eyes against his promotion."

"So, is it no longer a political reason?" asked Asuma, smoking one of his cigarettes.

"No, and I'm glad for it. It would have left a sour taste in my mouth to show that much favoritism, especially after that public embarrassment regarding his lateness to his fight in the arena." he shot a withering glare to Kakashi, who fidgeted a little.

The Hokage pulled out the exam evaluations result, as compiled by the judges, and gave them a recap of its content.

"Sasuke is both strong and intelligent, from team 7's report of the battle with Shukaku we know he has learned to make use of teamwork and trust his teammates to carry their weight in a battle. With a minimal tactical and strategic training he will be a full qualified chunin in a matter of a few weeks."

The jonin all nodded. He was the top rookie of his year, it was no wonder.

"His teammate Naruto has plenty of tactical genius, chunin level ninjutsu, traps and seals and given enough time he can plan effective strategies. He needs a lot more taijutsu work, as well as some more strategic thinking. And he must start training with that strange orange weapon of his." he said with a chuckle.

"Shikamaru....well, he has been promoted for his brain, mainly." said the Hokage. "He scored the highest amongst the candidates: he has an incredible analytical mind, can think of strategies and tactics on the fly and is able to carefully manage the surroundings and his resources. Unfortunately he will need a lot of work on his attitude and practical work." said the Hokage with a sigh. "Asuma, you have to be stricter with this boy."

The mentioned jonin lowered his head, while Kurenai chuckled slightly.

"Shino is probably a model shinobi. Quiet, intelligent, resourceful, used the barest of his abilities to completely subdue his opponent. The judges have no suggestions to improve his performance, since most of his abilities rely on his family jutsu, but I do. Teach him something to fall back to if he finds himself unable to rely on his bugs."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." said Kurenai.

With a nod, he dismissed the jonin and resumed his work.

* * *

"S-so, Naruto-kun, the four of you have been promoted?" asked Hinata, while Naruto, Kiba and Iruka sensei were eating his 'celebratory ramen'. Sakura and Sasuke both declined, saying they had eaten too much ramen in the last weeks for their tastes, but he simply thought that Sasuke wasn't in the mood to celebrate and Sakura was preparing to get the brooder a present of some kind. Shino was probably informing his family and Shikamaru was lazing somewhere with his team.

"What about Neiji, Naruto?" asked Kiba. He, too, was happy of the older genin's humiliation, but no one could say he wasn't skilled. Like Lee said, Neiji was probably the strongest fighter amongst the Konoha ninja in the finals.

"I have no idea, we were not given the reasons for our promotions." said Naruto, pausing for a moment from eating his third cup to answer.

"Personally, I think it was his psychological state." said Iruka, with a 'wise expression'. "I have been told that in the preliminaries he allowed his personal vendetta to overrule the proctor's orders and his better judgment, and in the finals he overestimated himself so much he fell in all of your traps, bared none. If he learned his lesson after that battle, you can be sure he will join you in six months, or even surpass you, given time. He is a genius, after all."

Naruto nodded, still sore about Neiji's treatment of his cousin, but at least he paid for it. And he was indirectly paid for it, too, thinking about all that money...

"Do any of you know anything about Lee?" asked Naruto, but was answered a choir of 'no' and resolved to find out what happened to him.

* * *

Tenten looked at Lee, still bandaged and unable to fight. Even if she really despised his fashion sense and his loudness, he was one of the best teammates she could hope to have: he was loyal to a fault, hard-working (er.. even maybe TOO hardworking) and a nice all-around person. He couldn't hold a candle against Neiji in coolness or appearance, but..

He simply didn't deserve such a fate.

That poor boy was still trying to train, despite the medic's badgering. Despite their best effort, they found themselves unable to convince the boy to stay put and rest, not that they could do much for him.

She looked at her other teammate. Neiji, too, was deeply changed from the exam, but in a good way. He stopped harping all the time about fate and destiny, that was good. Unfortunately, he still was as stoic and expressive as a rock.

Her sensei was a little more somber, and she could see the pain in his eyes for his prized pupil, Lee. She knew that Gai sensei favored Lee above others because he took to his training like a fish in water, but she didn't hold it against him. Probably Gai considered Lee to be the son he didn't have, and since her sensei didn't neglect her, she was ok with it, because being his favorite would mean share those hugs, being harped (even more) about youth... no thank you very much! She wanted to keep her sanity!

She, too, had learned much from those exams, despite losing in the preliminaries mainly due to a bad match-up, and was going to borrow just a little bit of her deranged spandex-wearing teammate's determination and train a bit more. Maybe she should branch her area of expertise adding another specialty. Considering her life-long role model and looking at Lee, she instantly considered medicine as a viable possibility...

* * *

After a celebratory dinner at Ichiraku's with Iruka, who insisted on paying, Naruto retired in his new apartment. He was really close to mastering the second scroll, so he tried to make that last little push to learn the Haste jutsu, but his excitement about his promotion and tomorrow's lesson distracted him to the point that he couldn't concentrate.

-_Naruto-chan, you are too nervous. You must relax a little or tomorrow morning you won't be able to get up in time_- said Kushina. Naruto, from the third family scroll his mother gave him last week (the Uzumaki family scroll - intermediate 1), learned how to build on his pyrefly item-crafting skill to assign on a semi-permanent basis a pyrefly from his coils for his Mother's use without having to summon one from the Farplane. It was a similar process to the creation of the Summoner's Staff, but it required a more delicate touch and much less power. He was just partially successful in it, because his mom could only access it when he was awake and she couldn't leave his immediate surroundings. Mom told him it was originally created and thought as a scouting technique and he could see its uses.

-_Naruto-chan. Go to sleep._-

"Ok, ok..." said Naruto, changing into his pajamas and going to bed. Still, it took him 4 hours to finally fall asleep, his mind often drifted to the rumors about him. The news of his promotion would be a rich ground for both positive and negative gossip. He resolved to create at least a hundred clones tomorrow and get at least that problem under control!

* * *

Bleary-eyed, Naruto reached the Academy after merely 3 hours of sleep. He created the clones as he decided... yesterday? This morning? No matter, he was about to make an important step on his road to the Tower, and it wouldn't be a little tiredness to stop him!

* * *

Naruto almost slammed his head on the desk to try to stay awake. Why did those instructor decide to drill them in the most boring of laws and regulations first thing in the morning the day he was so tired? He had to literally fight to stay awake during the boring lecture. He even knew that today Kakashi was free from missions until tomorrow and if he wasn't stuck here he could be training with him! Sakura was lucky that she didn't have to be bored like this: surely by now, she was having fun training with Kakashi sensei somewhere!

* * *

"Sooo, with half of the team occupied at the Academy" started Kakashi sensei, with an evil-looking eye-smile, "I will have plenty of time to concentrate on our dear pinkette, since today I have no missions!"

Sakura gulped. She never had the dubious pleasure of the undivided attentions of her sensei, and the premise wasn't encouraging. That particular eye-smile had never been so menacing and sinister in her opinion. Why couldn't she be in a nice classroom with his teammates learning useful things with them in a safe sadist-free environment?

"Let's start with a little sparring fun, then..." said the aforementioned sadist...

* * *

Akiko, the self declared leader of the gossip clone squad, was chatting with a couple of the mothers of first year academy students. The Boss was right to be worried, she already heard three nasty rumors about his competence, the injustice of him being promoted to his new rank or the safety of their children if they allowed monsters to provide their protection.

What a bunch of idiots!

Luckily she had a good amount of manpower (and a likewise good amount of girlpower, too!) at her disposal, but she was growing tired to simply react to this kind of abuse, she wanted to smack down the assholes who started these things in the first place!

Unfortunately she could only devote about ten clones to find those criminals, because acceptance of the population had a higher priority at such a critical stage of her career. People could justify her promotion to genin as an attempt to get her killed in a mission, but a promotion to a rank of higher responsibility, especially to the village (as guard duties are mostly assigned to chunin), could chafe the delicate sensibilities of the most bigoted of civilians. She didn't know what miracle the Hokage pulled to get the judges to evaluate her fairly, but she wouldn't let all that hard work be wasted!

* * *

Team 7 was assembled in the evening at heir usual training ground. Sakura was a mess, her hair were everywhere, her dress a rag, covered in dirt and sweat. To cap it all, she looked like she had been beaten by both Zabuza and Shukaku for a whole afternoon.

Maybe Sakura didn't have all that fun this morning...

"Well, team." said Kakashi, with an eye-smile. Sakura seemed to sob a little as she saw it, somehow. "I must say I'm proud of all of you. Now, since I already evaluated Sakura, it's now the boys' turn!"

Why did his expression make him afraid for his life?

* * *

Kakashi's evaluation was as harsh as the old pervert's. Luckily he was accustomed with it as was Sasuke, apparently. Kakashi immediately noted his weights but didn't comment. He didn't comment either when he saw his sensei's experimental taijutsu style butchered by Naruto and since he saw the recognition in his eyes after seeing Carbuncle, he wasn't surprised when Kakashi asked him to perform all the White Jutsu he was able to. And for the first time he managed to pull the Haste jutsu, too!

It lasted only three seconds, but it had been successful.

"Good, the chunin exam's evaluations of the two of you were mostly accurate. I'll draw a new schedule for the three of you during the protocol lessons period, and I want all of you to spar as you did in the last weeks." he turned to Sasuke and said: "It was a good idea to let Naruto use Slow against you that way, both of you have improved faster than I expected. You'll have to include Sakura on this, though, by slowing her opponent and hasting her until she is proficient enough to stand against one of you under those conditions. The academy style, while being basic, is adequate to her needs until she gains a little more strength and stamina. After that she would probably be better off training in the medic-nin style by using chakra scalpels to injure his opponents."

The three of them nodded. This was a true team training session! Why didn't Kakashi sensei treat them this way from the beginning? They could have been much stronger and maybe Sakura would have defeated Ino in the preliminaries, possibly making all the team chunin at the same time!

"Now, since I still have to perform missions and the two of you can't, I want Sakura to d-rank missions with team 8 and team 10 when they require it. I have made arrangements with Asuma and Kurenai so you can fill in for the third team member, but it won't be more than once a day, so don't worry, you can still complete every exercise in the scroll I'll leave you!"

Sakura shivered at the thought of Kakashi's list...

* * *

Naruto groaned and collapsed in his bed. He was dead tired, but a happy tired, since finally Kakashi sensei trained him as a true teacher should!

-_Congratulations on completing all the basic scrolls, Naruto-chan!_- said Kushina, her pyrefly floating near his head. -_Now you have just to master Haste and Slow, but it won't take long. You are, however, ready for a second intermediate scroll!_-

"Really?" Naruto asked, excited.

-_Yes, and I'll even give you a choice between the three remaining intermediate scrolls. The second scroll teaches you how to craft chunin level barriers: Shell, Protect and Reflect._-

Naruto nodded, and realized that they were White jutsu watered-down replications of Carbuncle's powers.

-_The third scroll will teach you the next level of the healing family: Cura, a c-rank healing white jutsu. It will heal damage to the body infrastructure: bones, muscles, tendons, blood vessels and peripheral nervous system. It still hasn't the intricacy necessary to heal extensive damage to organs or the central nervous system and it won't heal anything requiring actual regeneration, though._-

That would be really useful after their spars. It would mean less bruising, but...

"What about muscle training, mom? The anatomy books said that muscles strengthen themselves by damaging and repairing..."

-_White jutsu heal by increasing natural healing, so it will just hasten muscular reconstruction of your friends. Don't worry, it won't damage their training, but it will help it, instead. You already enjoy this benefit since the second test, when you managed to get a little white jutsu freely flowing in your coils by adjusting the mixing rate in the seal._-

Naruto nodded. This was incredibly useful. The best choice until now.

-_The fourth intermediate scroll is high b-rank jutsu, on the borderline jonin level. It needs the opening of up to three Warrior Gates, so its maximum effect is still above you, but I'm going to tell you how it works to motivate you further. Its name is Life, a really powerful White jutsu that made our clan a really miracle worker in the medicine field. If performed on a mostly intact corpse who has not yet opened its Death Gate, having still its soul, you can flood it with White Chakra to create a reviving construct in their chakra circulatory system able to close the opened gates, repair critical damage and almost literally pulling them away from death's doorstep. It will also repair oxygen deprivation damage, but memory loss can still happen._-

Naruto was absolutely flabbergasted. The ability to revive a deathly injured friend? To actually do something akin to a resurrection if performed soon enough? It was worth more than his weight in precious, flawless gems!

"Haku!" said a shocked Naruto, as he realized something.

He wouldn't have lost Haku if he knew this jutsu back then! Zabuza, too!

"_DAMN FOX!_" he yelled in his mind. He was actually furious, and his mother understood, apparently. She had been told his life story, after all, and she knew how much Haku's death marked her son. Kushina knew that Haku could not have been saved by Life, since his heart had been destroyed by Kakashi's Chidori, but she could see the connection in Naruto's eyes and his emotions were wild.

A couple hours later, a much calmer Naruto returned in the apartment, after a long destruction spree on a training ground's wooden posts.

"Mom, give me the Life scroll. I will not lose anymore people close to me if I can avoid it!"

Kushina nodded, and in a few moments the Uzumaki family scroll – intermediate 4 was in his hands, ready to be copied.


	19. Investigations

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 19: Investigations

by Chronodt

Akiko looked at her prey. She was the very first of the identified gossip monger who dished crap at Naruto, and was going to keep her under constant surveillance to see if she belonged to some kind of organization, if she was an infiltrator or if she was just spiteful. She requested from the Boss a rotation squad of 40 clones, to employ in small groups, singles, as families, etc. so to keep her under control and be inconspicuous. Her name was Kawate Hitomi, worked in a used book shop as the main clerk, but wasn't the owner, around 40 years old, short black graying hair, dark green eyes. She usually wore conservative brown dresses. The ideal model of a good woman or wife or mother. Except she was none of those. She had a family, but died a few month before the kyubi attack, so revenge had a low probability to be a motivation. She never married or had children, but Akiko didn't know if she ever dated someone, it was still to early in her data gathering to answer that. While she slept she Scanned her, and she didn't appear to be a ninja and the name she was known with was her true one, so the infiltrator route was out, at most she was a civilian spy or a simple informer.

Passing a couple henged clones, she 'passed the baton' of the surveillance and left the area for the day. This night, the Boss would summon her out again to put together the information from their individual observations and plan tomorrow's surveillance pattern. Being a Spymistress felt good!

* * *

Sasuke observed the dead last during the protocol lessons. Apart the very first day, where he almost fell asleep, he had been attentive and interested, a clear difference from the Academy days where he was the class clown; he probably got so excited that he couldn't sleep the first night. He did well in avoiding his celebrations, not that he wished to eat ramen again; that idiot was really addicted to those noodles and he almost had enough. The fangirl tried to stalk him, but he managed to lose her halfway on his way home. While she was becoming a competent kunoichi, her stupid infatuation on him was becoming tiresome. Why couldn't she understand that he couldn't afford himself to get involved with such nonsense until he killed his brother?

He returned his attention to the blackboard. The lessons were really interesting, now that the rules and regulations were mostly done. They were currently being informed of c-rank village secrets, cyphers and codes pertinent to their new responsibilities, the art of leading a squad, resource management and much more. As soon as these lessons were over, he would be able to access specialized training, jutsu scrolls and up to b-rank missions. And with a few months of those, he would be allowed to enlist in ANBU, the elite of the village, and from there he would distinguish himself enough to enter the hunter-nin squad, the elite of the elite, just like Haku pretended to be. From there he would be actually paid and trained by the village to accomplish his main ambition.

* * *

Sakura felt energized. She couldn't believe the effectiveness of Naruto's jutsu, but she couldn't refute the results. In the last week, she sparred with the blond doing as Kakashi sensei ordered, and she was quickly gaining ground on Naruto. Not hard to do, since with those White jutsu her progresses were multiplied by a factor of four during those matches. Naruto himself was getting stronger fast. Using both Slow and Haste he could now beat even Sasuke-kun, when he didn't use his sharingan. Sasuke's mood was actually better when Naruto proved himself a challenge to him, and he explained that by fighting an opponent at his own level, even if he had to take on handicaps to accomplish this, would make him stronger faster. Sakura could see his point, but was still hard for her to understand this aspect of his personality: his one-track mind about getting strong at the cost of almost everything else, even his own happiness.

Once a week, the boys also stepped up their sparring by using up to c-rank ninjutsu and with that addition, Naruto was a much greater opponent to Sasuke, even when he used his bloodline. Her Sasuke-kun rarely lost, naturally, but if their matches were longer than about 10 minutes, Naruto could gain ground over Sasuke-kun with his incredible stamina, reversing the match or forcing a stalemate. Sakura knew that if Sasuke dared to use higher level jutsu, Naruto would have no chance, but the only higher level one he knew were all assassination jutsu, not something you could use in a sparring match. A few times Naruto even summoned low to mid level toads or his family summons, Carbuncle and Ixion. Sasuke especially liked to fight against that beautiful horse because he could go against him all-out, being a pyrefly bunshin and therefore technically immortal, he could remove all restraints and fight without holding anything back. However, Sakura couldn't believe her eyes the one time Sasuke tried to use his Chidori against Ixion and found out that the lightning horse absorbed his electricity so fast that Sasuke's jutsu was rendered useless before hitting him, but due to that very electrical nature he was actually very weak against water jutsu. Naruto explained it is true for most elemental summons, they absorb their own element but are extremely vulnerable against one or two others. Naruto also told them that his summons's strength was proportional to his own, so they would get stronger as long as he did.

Sakura shrugged those thoughts and resumed her training with the mud wall jutsu, a c-rank defensive technique taught to her during the pre-finals month by Ebisu-sensei that really taxed her reserves, and forced her to start using her earth primary affinity. The great amount of defensive jutsu of her element really pleased her, because as the physically weakest member of team 7, she needed at least a good defense. Building walls and attacking from behind them with her genjutsu, covering her teammates while she was at it was an ideal way of using her strengths. Combined with Sasuke's powerful attacks, Naruto's clones and Carbuncle's shields, including the incredible Reflect, able to absorb and reverse most direct elemental ninjutsu, made their team a force to reckon with!

* * *

"Again with fishes" sighed a resigned Naruto, returning yet again to what he knew as his fishing spot. Just to realize there were almost no fishes left in it.

"So, the fishes are out."

-_Try catching birds, Naruto-chan. They will be harder to catch, and even harder to catch alive. It will be good training._-

Realizing his mother was right, he searched for good stones and prepared a few traps. To get the maximum benefit as training, he would get near a bird with stealth, then throw a small stone at it. All the while a few clones would build traps to capture a few more. As his hunting skills grew, he would build less and less traps and try to keep a consistent (or greater) amount of captured birds.

At least his mother would stop nagging him about eating something other than ramen for a few days.

* * *

Aburame Shino was perplexed. His colony, his ever present friends, allies and partners, gave him strange information about Uzumaki Naruto, in particular his chakra, different from what he remembered from his time at the Academy. His allies noticed this strangeness for the first time during the preliminary rounds, but it was during the finals that it was truly evident. And he was intrigued, as it was a good mystery to solve. His allies actually found Naruto's chakra _delicious_ to the point that quite a few of them disobeyed him and went to nibble a little of it. And, during the protocol lessons, that 'appetizing' quality of his chakra was again reduced to the preliminaries' level.

Consulting his clan records, he could not find anything regarding that behavior of the kikai, so it must be something particular in Naruto. Could he be using some kind of weird drug or medicine? His increased abilities compared to the academy level could be explained that way, too, especially because his kikai noticed the boy healing Hinata with a bit of that 'tasty' chakra, and his competence in healing and medicine could explain it.

Still, he decided to ask his father.

Shibi, Shino's father, was actually tending one of the spare colonies his clan bred to be either implanted in newborns or as a replacement for critically injured Aburame.

As soon as they got near, they greeted each other.

"Father."

"Shino."

"Father, I may have a question about the erratic behavior of my colony in the proximity of one of my fellow chunin in training."

"I assume you are talking about Uzumaki Naruto."

"Yes, father. So you already were aware of it."

Shibi nodded, his gaze never leaving the colony.

"The Uzumaki Clan possessed a bloodline limit that makes their chakra very desirable by our allies, and has highly potent healing properties. His Clan isn't well known because his mother was a refugee from the destroyed Whirlpool country and didn't live long enough to let her abilities be widely known. I knew her personally, and Naruto's... eccentricities remind me a little of her."

Shino nodded. So that reaction was due to Naruto's bloodline. Natural healing chakra, it would make him incredibly effective as a medic ninja.

"His Clan also created powerful healing jutsu, usable even at a distance, that had the side effect of supercharging our colonies. I admit Uzumaki-san was fond of using them on me before a battle, making the efficiency of my allies noticeably increase. It was thought, in the Clan, that the young Uzumaki didn't inherit her gift, due to certain circumstances I am not allowed to divulge, but if your allies behaved that way, I guess our conclusion was premature. After all we weren't aware of the vital cycle of their bloodline."

Shino nodded, satisfied. Uzumaki Naruto would be an advantageous teammate, if they somehow found themselves on the same mission. He made a mental note to use the attraction of Naruto's chakra as incentive to train his control during their lessons, trying to keep his colony from eating Naruto's chakra without his permission.

* * *

Naruto almost licked his fingers, if his mother wasn't hovering over his shoulder, after eating his fourth roasted bird. His mother had a good eye for herbs to make even those little things taste delicious, and after this test trial he grudgingly agreed with his mother that _sometimes_ you can find something almost as good as ramen with the right spices.

As one of his clones cleaned up the kitchen, he reflected on this evening's training. The revival construct was incredibly hard, because it required wrapping his mind not only in crafting what could be defined as a perfect crystal using just wet clay and his hands, but he had to do so in all three dimensions and in the weird fake direction the pyrefly summoning technique forced him to acknowledge. Again, if he knew higher level math, he would have realized Life required a flawless four-dimensional chakra construct, something his mind barely accepted as possible. There _was_ a reason the pyrefly summoning technique was taught first and at a young age, after all!

"I will need at least three weeks to get it right, mom." said Naruto, a little dejected.

-_Yes, it was my estimate, too. Remember that it is a high b-rank technique, something that technically should still be above you._-

"So why did you allow me to?" asked a surprised Naruto.

-_Because you are as stubborn as your father. And, fortunately, you inherited his knack for ninjutsu, too._-

Naruto smiled at that.

* * *

Sakura was window-shopping, when she saw Hinata and Kiba talking. She was about to greet them when she inadvertently overheard them speaking.

"No, Kiba-kun, Naruto-kun should return only in 15 minutes, we have still a little time to lose." said Hinata, surprisingly without stuttering.

"Alright, Hinata-chan, but still I don't see why I have to come too!" said a disgruntled Kiba. Akamaru barked as if agreeing with Kiba.

"Because... because..." Hinata started poking her fingers together in a nervous habit, when Kiba noticed Sakura.

"Oh, hi Sakura!" said the boy.

"Hello, Kiba, Hinata!" said Sakura. "What happened to Naruto?"

"Oh, we were going to visit him. Or at least Hinata-chan was, and dragged me along with her." said Kiba, still with a slightly bitter expression. "So have you seen his new apartment, too?" continued Kiba, smirking as if he just had a good idea.

Sakura lowered her head. Naruto _had_ asked her and Sasuke both, but since Sasuke declined, she felt too.... uncomfortable to go alone with a boy who just weeks before declared his undying love for her, then abruptly stopped. Maybe with two others around she wouldn't feel so... confused, she guessed. Confused about Naruto, mainly, and his reactions to something that could be seen as some kind of affection, being alone with him in his apartment. She decided to say as much.

"No, Kiba. Sasuke always declines and I would feel embarrassed to go alone in his home."

Hinata beside Kiba nodded, understanding perfectly her shyness, but happy to be one of the first people Naruto ever brought to his apartment. She wouldn't let herself think of also actually being the first _girl_ to enter his apartment or she would surely flush or even faint.

"Want to come with us?" asked Kiba, trying to ignore what his nose was telling him about Hinata-chan's state of mind, but hoping that seeing Naruto and Sakura together would...help his chances with the girl. He hated what he was doing to Hinata, but...

Sakura nodded. "Sure, why not?"

The three of them began walking at a sedate pace toward Naruto's new apartment.

* * *

Naruto put away the water balloon as soon as he heard knocking on the door. He had just returned from the Academy and before he went hunting he busted a couple water balloons. He was now proficient with this step even using just one hand, left or right was indifferent, and was just trying to destroy them a tiny bit faster than before. Seeing that he had guests, he created five clones to leave from the window to do the Life training, while he welcomed them.

Opening the door, he saw it was not only Hinata-chan and Kiba (with Akamaru on his head, naturally), but Sakura-chan, too!

"Oh, welcome!" said Naruto, letting his friends in.

"Nice place, Naruto!" said a surprised Sakura. "How did you manage to afford it?" she wondered. After all, she didn't think the orphan allowance would be enough and he only had those lame d-rank mission to get more money.

"Naruto asked a friend of his to bet on his victory against Neiji during the finals." said Kiba, still disgruntled about not thinking about doing it himself. Naruto nodded in confirmation and Sakura sweatdropped.

"Sometimes is good to be known as the dead last, isn't it?" asked a smirking Naruto. "They gave me 35 to 1 odds, and I bet almost all my savings, 400 ryo." He didn't even mention the second bet in front of Sakura; he wanted to avoid being punched to death.

"Even with hmm.. 14,000 ryo this apartment should be worth more than that!" said a shocked and awed Sakura, but then remembered all the fleeing civilians during their restoration d-rank. "Ah, this belonged to one of those scared families, didn't it?"

Naruto could only nod. "As long as they got all the money within the day, they apparently didn't care that this apartment was worth almost twice what I paid."

"So, Naruto." interjected Kiba, who didn't care about hearing again how he managed to swindle this home. "What are they teaching you at those protocol lessons? Shino won't tell us anything."

Hinata also raised her eyes a little bit more. Being with another girl as self-assured as Sakura only amplified her insecurities, even if she could see she wasn't interested in Naruto-kun. She couldn't bring herself to look at Naruto himself to see if he was still interested in Sakura, though, her insecurities would not allow it. What if he still found Sakura-san interesting? What if he liked her so much he... he....

In the ceiling a pyrefly watched as Hinata's progress made a step back. Kushina made a mental note to have Naruto do something nice for the poor girl.

"Well, they are teaching us rules and regulations, protocols, a few low-rank village secrets that I obviously can't tell you and next week will be devoted to battle hand language, to let us communicate plans in silence for b-ranked or higher missions, the guarding duties schedules we will be assigned and in the end they will point us where to find training in the areas the judges in the chunin exam found us either lacking or excelling." Then, with an evil grin, he nonchalantly added: "Ah, and they are going to teach us the Shunshin no Jutsu, the Body Flicker."

Kiba nodded, envious about the shunshin. But excluding that, it sounded really boring and as for the training pointers he was sure his sensei would give them if he asked. No wonder Shino didn't want to talk about it, he wanted to gloat... no it wasn't his style. He probably didn't want to be asked to teach us that jutsu.

"Well, don't let it go to your head, I'll become chunin the next time for sure! I was just unlucky to fight you!" said Kiba, crossing his arms. Akamaru barked in support of his boasting, and Naruto smirked. "I'm counting on it, Kiba!"

Hinata still kept her head down, wondering if she could ever be able to get the promotion...

* * *

Akiko analyzed all her observations, and those of the clones before her. She ordered the clones to investigate finances, movements, contacts, friends. There was no doubt. Kawate Hitomi was under the paycheck of the Hyuga Clan. This complicated matters enormously. She _did_ alienate the Hyuga Clan with her little lesson to Neiji, but not to the point where they would use a subtle public opinion attack on her. The Head of the Clan would never allow something that could be traced back to him to 'avenge' a branch member, even if it was his nephew. It was most likely someone highly placed within the Clan that hated her and probably also hated Hyuga Hiashi so that he would take the fall if anyone connected the facts. Those unknown people decided that she had crossed over some imaginary limit, or proved in their misguided mind that the Boss was the demon.

Utter foolishness.

However they are well connected fools, it won't be easy to unmask whoever is behind this, especially because to do a complete investigation she would have to infiltrate the Hyuga Compound after she drew a list of suspects. Fortunately she had plenty of experience of pranking expeditions to tap in, but their damn eyes would be a problem. She already knew the easiest way to hide from them, but the Clan would be stupid to not think to set any kind of ward or alarm underground, or for the guards to not train into sensing minute vibrations in the ground created by tunneling even with earth jutsu. She would, and she certainly wasn't a genius!

She thought about it for half an hour, then reluctantly admitted she didn't have the necessary skill to complete this assignment alone. She would gather all evidence, find a good deal more and then she would present it to the Hokage. This was no longer a private matter, this could seriously escalate to something worse if those guys succeeded. After kicking her out of the village they could turn the rumor machine, put together by their common hate for the fox brat, against their political enemies. Sheep mentality would keep such a spider net of gossip working even after she was driven out!

No, this risked going beyond a simple misguided spite. And, thinking about it, she could possibly ruin counter-intelligence plans already in motion, there was no way no one else found out about this, even if she was directly interested.

And what if the paper trail and contacts she followed was a fake, implanted by an enemy of the Hyuga?

Sometimes being a Spymistress sucked!

* * *

While Naruto was entertaining guests at home and a few clones were practicing Life, another clone wielded the Summoning Glaive and started moving through a polearm kata he found in the shinobi section of the library. His inability to use the Glaive as a weapon could be an exploitable weakness if he was forced to defend himself while one of his summons was out, and his instructors would soon point it out to him, not that he didn't realize it himself. Swinging the weapon around, he managed to only drop it three times this session! Sometimes, it was frustrating to have to do everything alone because you have no teacher to guide you to correct mistakes. Not even her mother knew anything about polearms, she never imagined to craft the Summoner's Staff in that form (and was berating herself for that oversight) but she had been indoctrinated from a very young age that a Summoner's Staff was more a symbol or a tool rather than a weapon. She even hinted that in Whirlpool country their Clan was as respected as the Hyuga here in Konoha, if not more. A pity it had been destroyed long before his birth, or he could have invited some more of those past refugees here to help his public opinion and ease Akiko's workload significantly!

Swinging his Glaive for the last time, he looked at his surrounding. This small clearing he found training with toads was a good place to train in physically intensive but not destructive activities. Gamakichi and him often played here together when Konohamaru wasn't around, but today he was not in the mood. Sitting down, since he didn't need to cool down, being just a clone, he observed the Summoning Glaive. Very few ninja in Konoha ever used the glaive or other polearms, due to the environment. In such a tree-rich area, swinging around almost 2 meter-long weapons was very unwieldy. He actually knew of only one person in Konoha who may know a bit more about it than what he found in the library: Tenten. And if she didn't, she would surely know where to find something.

He just hoped that she didn't inherit her sensei's enthusiasm and wanted to become his rival in polearm use. Two Maito Gai were already too much for a single village!


	20. Evil maternal plots?

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 20: Evil maternal plots?

by Chronodt

Naruto closed the book about handseals that Akiko borrowed from the library with a sigh. His last attempt to find something about how jutsu work or how to create them was a failure. His mother was right, they wouldn't leave such sensitive topics around for genin to tamper with and probably not even being a chunin would allow him to. Unless he got into ANBU, but he wasn't ready for it; being an ANBU sounded like being stiff and serious for hours on end and he still wanted to have his fun when he could. He would leave that job to Sasuke or people just like him, for now. Probably in the future he would change his mind, but unless the Hokage ordered him, he would stay away from there.

-_Naruto-chan, are you all right?_-

Naruto looked up at the pyrefly, and replied. -_Yes, mom. You were just right about the jutsu creation stuff. Can't dad help me?_-

-_Naruto-chan, there is a reason why we don't let ninja below jonin fiddle with jutsu: it is dangerous!_-

Naruto sighed, he would not win this one. Since mom could not protect him physically, she tended to exaggerate every protection she could enforce.

-_Now, to get your mind over that, why don't you go somewhere with Hinata-chan? She didn't look good, yesterday, didn't she?_-

Naruto nodded, Hinata yesterday was weirder than usual.

-_You are right, mom. I should ask her if she is ok._-

-_Good. And have fun! And remember to invite only Hinata-chan, she would never tell you what's wrong with her teammates along!_-

Naruto nodded and picked up Gama-chan so they could eat something together. But why did he have the impression that he had just been set up by his mother? Was she plotting something against him?

* * *

Sasuke looked in the archives of his once-great clan with a feverish intensity. He saw how useful summoning contracts were, seeing how the toads summoned by the dead last had a wide range of abilities for almost every contingency, and since summoning was a chunin-level jutsu he felt entitled to it. He could not duplicate Naruto's family summons, but even if powerful, they were limited, in certain ways, and he didn't care much about things he couldn't get. What he was searching in his Clan complex, was the eventual existence of a Uchiha clan summon. It was unlikely, since he would have heard of it growing up, or from his Academy instructor, or even from Kakashi sensei. Secret histories in the clan told of the mangekyo sharingan, able to summon and control the terrible Kyubi no Kitsune, but the beast was dead, and if it wasn't, his hated brother would have already enslaved it, he was sure of it!

So his Clan had no official summons, and he didn't want to share the toads with the dead last, even if he could surely benefit from that oil and fire combo attacks. So he researched for a summon family that could beat toads, just to be assured that even his summons were stronger than Naruto's, and he suddenly thought about Orochimaru and his mark. He, like the other Legendary Three, Jiraya and Tsunade, possessed a summoning contract, with snakes, who were famous for eating toads. But the fake-genin was a missing-nin, one of the most deranged, too, since he read in the Uchiha histories that he had been caught red-handed doing experiments on living human beings, even a few Uchiha. Being a guinea pig for a madman wouldn't help him become stronger, and the fact that he already was marked as one didn't bide well for him. And he had been defeated a few weeks ago by a man well past his prime, so even if he was immensely strong compared to himself, there were stronger people here, in Konoha.

Thinking about it, there was a way around having to interact with that creepy man: the snake summoner had an apprentice, even if he didn't know who it was, as his documents spoke of that person as the 'Snake's apprentice', never deigning it of a name. He would just research, somehow convince that person to let him sign that contract and teach him the relative jutsu. Just by learning that skill, he was sure his offensive abilities would increase at least by half, if not more.

* * *

Naruto waited for the end of the protocol lessons. His mother was testing the limit of her movement range, or so she said, but Naruto believed that his mother was just spying on Hinata, to see when she was alone. Not that he minded because after his mother made him realize it, yesterday Hinata was feeling really down for some reason, and as her friend his job was to cheer her up!

At the end of the lessons, he shot away from the Academy building toward the marketplace, where his mother was waiting for him. She already told him that she was walking alone in the direction of the Hyuga complex after his team training, and after the revelations uncovered by his spy clones he didn't want to go there.

"Hello, Hinata!" said Naruto to a slightly startled Hinata. She was completely immersed in her thoughts and didn't see Naruto coming.

"N-Naruto-kun!" she said, with a slight stutter. Kushina noted that she still didn't dare to meet his eyes.

"Hinata-chan, are you all right today? Yesterday you were a little down..." he said slightly worried after seeing the initial symptoms of her weirdness.

Hinata blushed instantly. "_He noticed!_" thought a panicked Hinata. She didn't know whether to sink in the ground in embarrassment (and to a ninja such a thing was not as impossible as it sounded) or to melt in happiness to be noticed by her Naruto-kun. Realizing that Naruto-kun was getting even more worried because of her delayed response, she said. "Y-yes, Naruto-kun, I'm fine today!"

Naruto didn't believe that for a second, so with his usual directness, he grabbed Hinata's hand, and told her: "I think not, Hinata-chan. You are simply faking it. But I know the perfect remedy to unhappiness: ramen! So you are coming with me to Ichiraku's and I'll make you forget whatever is troubling you!"

Hinata was on the verge of fainting. Naruto was holding her hand! Naruto was inviting her to dinner! Naruto was asking her on a DATE! Three of her most cherished dreams coming true all at once and she could not afford to lose consciousness! NO!

With an almost inhuman willpower, Hinata steeled herself, tapping in her secret stash of courage, secret even to herself, apparently, because thanks to it she managed to keep Naruto's pace awake, aware, and in bliss.

Kushina, if she could, would probably be sweatdropping heavily. It seemed that her knucklehead of a son was even more clueless about girls than she suspected, even after her lectures; it looked like she would have to step up his social education. At least Hinata-chan managed to keep her head, or it would have been a complete disaster! And the look on her face! That poor girl probably was memorizing this as the best day on her life if her expression was any indication. She just hoped Naruto wouldn't botch this, or he would destroy Hinata-chan's confidence forever!

"Oi! Teuchi!" said Naruto to the cook of his favorite restaurant as soon as he entered. "I need something special for two!" continued Naruto with a smirk. The cook looked surprised, but a quick glance at the girl's face and his expression altered into a mischievous grin. "Right up!"

The cook observed Naruto's tentative conversation with the Hyuga girl, the very same he often saw stalking the boy around with an air of longing. He also realized that while she was considering this as a dream date, he was just trying as a friend to cheer her up. He shook his head, Naruto was completely clueless, but it was expected from a boy his age. Still, he had the means to make this day memorable for them both. He wouldn't dare to use the 'single bowl' ploy, that girl looked like she was about to faint from both happiness and embarrassment, so he simply took two identically decorated bowls of ramen and took pains to make the two dishes as similar as possible. He even had to restrain his matchmaking instincts from adding the ingredients in a heart shape, because he didn't want a dead Hyuga in his restaurant, thank you very much. Still, he couldn't resist placing the chopsticks in a way that they would touch hands while grabbing them. As he hoped, the girl immediately noticed the identical setup of the servings, and smiled dreamily. He had just made a new regular. Wasn't he good or what?

The other ploy worked even better, the girl was so entranced by her daydream that she reached for the chopsticks at the same time as Naruto, causing even the boy to stop and look at her, in a confused embarrassment.

Kushina, in the ceiling, 'nodded' approvingly at the actions of the aging cook. Hinata-chan smile was completely genuine and heartfelt for probably the first time in years, and even Naruto noticed it, finally!

As they ended the meal, Naruto looked at Hinata, and said: "I see that now you are feeling much better, Hinata-chan. I'd like to accompany you home, but after the finals I don't think I would be really welcome there for a while." he said with a slightly unhappy tone. Hinata, still in la-la land of supreme happiness, continued to smile happily and said: "It's ok, Naruto-kun. This has been the happiest day I can remember, thank you very much!" Naruto nodded and paid for the both of them, and returned home to continue his training. Hinata, instead, could not stop smiling, and it took her two hours to resume a composure that would not earn her punishments from her father.

She was still slightly reprimanded for being late, but nothing could ruin this day!

* * *

Kushina tried to restrain herself.

She really did!

But it was too good an occasion to tease her son...

-_So, Naruto-chan, how was your date?_- asked Kushina with a sweet and slightly mischievous voice.

"Uh? What are you talking about mom?" asked a confused Naruto.

-_Well, you just asked Hinata out to dinner, in your favorite restaurant, you kept her company, you cheered her up, you paid for both your meals.... a boy and a girl, hand in hand...it is a date, Naruto-chan!_-

Naruto looked flabbergasted.

"B-b-b-b-but! I... I just wanted to cheer her up! It was nothing like that, mom! And it was YOU who asked me to cheer her up!"

-_Well, I didn't ask you to take her hand and offer her ramen, right?_-

Naruto's thought process halted for a minute.

"B-but..."

-_Naruto-chan, even if you didn't consider it a date, Hinata did. Everyone would. You didn't because the village isolated you to the point of stunting your social education._-

"Really? Is that why Sakura-chan never accepts my invitations?"

-_It is a large part of it, yes. As long as Sasuke refuses to come along, she won't accept. Being seen alone with you in a restaurant, many would think you were dating, while if Sasuke is there, too, they would just see it as team bonding. Sakura doesn't want such a rumor to reach her rivals or, worse, Sasuke and her only defense is to refuse you, too._-

Naruto nodded, finally understanding his teammate a bit more.

-_However, Naruto-chan, you didn't answer my question. How was your date?_-

"MOM!"

* * *

After leaving a few clones to hunt and practice Life, the original (and still embarrassed) Naruto reached training ground 17, Gai's team training ground. He was lucky, because Neiji wasn't there. Unfortunately Lee wasn't, either. Gai and Tenten were training in taijutsu, and they stopped as soon as he came within range.

"Yosh, Naruto-kun, have you come here to fan your flames of youth?" asked Gai-sensei, in a surprisingly straight face for such a stupid question.

"Uh, Gai-sensei, I was going to ask Tenten if she knew how to use a glaive." he summoned his Summoning Glaive and told them: "I just found a few basic katas in the library, but nothing like a true style."

Gai smiled, while Tenten's eyes looked predatory. Uh oh.

"That's the weapon you had at the finals, right? How did you summon it without a scroll?" asked the girl, trying to not drool at the glaive in his hand. Despite its color it looked like a magnificent weapon! And what kind of metal made a blade orange?

"It's a family secret. This is the Summoning Glaive, and it allows me to summon a few powerful creatures, like Carbuncle, the one you saw at the match."

Gai nodded, remembering Carbuncle's ability.

After seeing Tenten's hungry gaze, he added: "Unfortunately, if anyone holds it but me it will dissolve in a cloud of small harmless flames, so I cannot let you try it out."

Tenten tried to disguise her disappointment.

"Oh, well, it's a pity, I really wanted to try it." Tenten said. "Gai sensei?" she turned to the man, asking for permission. Gai nodded.

Tenten unsealed from a scroll a polearm similar to his glaive. "This is a Pike. I don't have a glaive with me, but the beginner's katas are similar enough. Show me the ones you know and I'll correct you. Be aware that I want you to teach me about seals in exchange! I have seen what you did against Kiba and Neiji, and I want to improve. Right now, the only seal I can do is the storage scroll." she showed him one of them. It was just as good as his own.

"That is good, Tenten. That is a c-rank seal, you know? You must have practiced a lot to start with such a hard one!"

Tenten beamed at the compliment, and Gai started ranting again about burning flames of youth or another similar nonsense. Naruto already was on his first steps of learning the secret art of ignoring Gai's rants, a vital skill in his team that Tenten and Neiji have mastered long ago. He now was glad that Lee wasn't there or he would have been overwhelmed by the double attack.

"Thank you, Naruto. Now show me what you can do."

Naruto spent about an hour doing katas before Tenten and Gai, who both helped him correcting his moves. Gai even insisted in seeing his unarmed katas, and was surprised to see his beginning proficiency with the Whirlwind Strike, and began a horrible rant about doing hundreds of stupid things if he didn't manage to master them with his help. Since when did he become his student? Had he unknowingly agreed to it while he ignored the man?

Seeing the pitying looks of Tenten, he guessed he must have, somehow.

_Damn!_

* * *

Naruto realized soon that Gai didn't accept a 'no' as an answer, and found himself equipped with weights for a total double of what he was wearing before. While he trained with Gai and Tenten for only 2 hours after that, he returned home so tired he barely had the strength to get in the furo. He thanked everything he could that he managed to find a home with one of those, his aching muscles screamed bloody murder despite his accelerated healing. Despite everything, he could admit that Gai was a taijutsu genius of the highest caliber, even better than Ero-sennin. He wondered how that man could know the personal style of the Fourth Hokage better than his teacher, but he couldn't really complain about the result: he improved faster in a 2-hour session with Gai than in 2 days with Ero-sennin, or a week alone. Tenten, seeing his condition, decided that the seals instruction would have to wait until he could actually lift a brush without trembling, and meanwhile she prayed that Gai wasn't trying to transform Naruto in another Lee, not that he would ever abandon his clone!

At least Naruto _had_ improved his wardrobe, way better than the orange jumpsuit he wore at the second test, so maybe there is hope for Lee, too!

* * *

Akiko presented her evidence to the Hokage, who nodded gravely. She had identified a second rumor monger, and at a surface examination, it looked like he, too, was on the paycheck of the Hyuga.

"This is grave news, indeed, Akiko-chan." said the Hokage. "You were right to present this to me and it is a credit to you. Maybe I should allow you to go to the chunin exams, after all." said a smirking Sarutobi.

Akiko, instead, groaned, thinking that the Hokage may very well force her to participate to the chunin exams again...

"Hahahaha! Don't worry, Akiko-chan. The exams are not the only way to get promoted, even if it is the preferred method. It is very rarely used because the exams bring clients to our village, but I'll see if I can get you promoted in a few months. After all, it would be unfair to the other genin if I let you enter them, and if you were somehow discovered I would be in an extremely embarrassing position."

Naruto nodded. If the other Kage discovered a chunin mixed amongst the aspiring genin, they would cry foul, and there may be serious repercussions. Now that she was thinking about it, there were probably also hefty penalties in the Chunin Exam Regulations for the guilty village.

"Now, returning to your problem, I'm afraid you'll have to sit out this one. Investigating Hyuga puts your cover at risk."

Akiko seemed a little dejected, but the Hokage was right. The first Hyuga who activated his byakugan in her presence would see through the henge.

But what if she managed to craft a seal array to fool them?

It would be a custom job and at least an a-rank seal, worth at least months of work (or weeks, with the right amount of clones) but with a good amount of help from Ero-sennin, she could do it!

"Despite that, Akiko-chan, your efforts and initiative are laudable. I think that in a couple month, around the time Jiraya returns with a certain person from his mission with Naruto-kun, I can assign you to an infiltration specialist."

"Uh? Mission with Naruto?" It was really weird, speaking about Naruto as if he was someone else.

"Oh, yes. Jiraya should return in a few days and then soon after he'll depart again with Naruto for a c-rank mission. I need you to meet the person they are going to bring back, before reassigning you."

Akiko nodded, so it was a roundabout advance notice to schedule Naruto's training accordingly. It also explained another reason for her to pass the baton of the investigation. With Naruto outside the village, it would be almost impossible to keep the surveillance or the counter-rumors up. But sure as hell, she would resume as soon as she returned!

"Oh, before you go, here, for the work you just did." the old man passed her a scroll. She bowed and then left the office, with a respectful "Hokage-sama."

Returning home, and dispelling the henge. The clone opened the scroll, to see a storage seal. Inside, she found a treasure worth more than gold. A letter, with Hokage-sama handwriting and a book.

_Dear Naruto, I always regretted to have forced on your shoulders all those burdens, and recently I finally found something I carefully salvaged from the ruins of your parents' home and hid for your sake. I hope this will help you. Sincerely, Hiruzen Sarutobi._

The clone opened the book with trembling hand, and saw a photo album of his parents. He smiled, while a few tears flew down his cheeks.

"Thank you, old man.......Hokage-sama."

* * *

Jiraya looked at the gates of Konoha. It took him a bit less than his expectations, but it was a good thing. He had a bit of time to... indulge himself at the bath houses, then he would take the brat and drag him to Tanzaku Town, to help him persuade Tsunade. He would be useful if sensei's orders are not enough, and it was a good way to see if he managed to get the first stage of the Rasengan correctly. He also heard rumors about Orochimaru's movements in Rice country, but it looked like he was content rebuilding his forces, for the moment. Unfortunately, this would also mean that he would step up his inhuman experimentations just to not get bored. He sighed, resigned. He longed for those times where the three of them were together as one, in the battlefield and out, before his descent into madness and power lust. Frustrated, he decided to distract himself with that yummy open air bath just on his left...

* * *

"Orochimaru-sama" said Kabuto, greeting his master in his medical lab. It was in a subterranean level and covered with graphs and diagrams of human bodies, and in several glass tanks you could see human bodies, but it was impossible to see if they were alive or not at a first glance.

"How is Kimimaro?" asked the snake ninja.

"He is dying, Orochimaru-sama. I have done all I can, but he will not last much longer."

Orochimaru seemed thoughtful for a few moments, then he said. "I have a mission for you, Kabuto. Go to Tanzaku Town, my spies told me my old teammate is going there. Give her the offer we discussed..." he touched a scroll where Kabuto knew were ashes from Dan and Nawaki, the former lover and little brother of Tsunade. "... to convince her to help me with the Kaguya. If she doesn't agree, you know her weakness, bring her here by force."

Kabuto nodded and left the lab, preparing his traveling supplies and leaving orders for his assistants.

Orochimaru looked at the ailing and unconscious Kimimaro with greed in his eyes. He was probably the best tool and spare body he could find, until he could get his hands on the sharingan, and wasn't going to lose him to a simple disease. His spies in Konoha told him that the Uchiha boy had been promoted, probably to keep him leashed to the village, but he knew his kind. For his revenge he would betray them, sooner or later, and in the meantime he would become stronger. It would be sweet when Sasuke-kun finally realized his village wouldn't help him to grow strong enough. He would then seek him out to get more power, the cursed seal he now bore would ensure it.

In the meantime, though, he needed a new body to inhabit.


	21. Leaving Konoha

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 21: Leaving Konoha

by Chronodt

Naruto started his day finishing his warm-up kata. Today was the last protocol lesson, and he would receive the official flak jacket and instructions on how to perform the Shunshin no Jutsu. His clones already saw the pervert around the village, naturally peeping in bath houses, so he guessed that as soon as he finished every bureaucratic nuance, he would kidnap him to go to the c-rank mission the Hokage told him about. He nodded at the Akiko clone, who would stay in the village as long as her chakra supply lasted. He decided to experiment with it because he was curious to see if the clone could increase her lifespan by replenishing her non-regenerating coils with the reserve chakra stored in the Warrior Gates. With this last month's training he managed to successfully open two Gates in a matter of seconds, but he still had to manage to open a third one. A pity that, the clone could use a little more reserves. With the help of the meditation techniques she used during the chunin exam, she could continue keeping an eye on the situation in the village, even if Akiko could no longer command the same manpower as before. It was a disappointment that the Shadow Clone technique forced you to split evenly your chakra, or otherwise Akiko could send him periodic reports even while he was away from the village. Then he had an idea!

"Akiko, I'll send you a toad regularly, so prepare a weekly written report until we can get around the communications problem."

Akiko nodded. Since he planned to use clones often during his mission, she would be constantly updated of his progresses on a daily basis. This idea also made him realize that Akiko could be his insurance in the event of capture or heavy injury. She would realize soon if he was in danger and send reinforcements, if not from the clones dispersing, simply by the delay in the reports. Not a bad thing, that!

Her main job was, however, to continue her counter-gossiping, since she couldn't train without wasting her precious chakra, and put further distance between the two of them. After all, if Naruto wasn't even in the village, he couldn't impersonate Akiko, right?

* * *

Putting on his new flak vest, Sasuke smirked to himself. Now he possessed an useful technique, the Shunshin no Jutsu that, while of no great use in battle, could noticeably shorten his travel times to and from the training areas, as well as training his chakra capacity and control. And if his distant relative Shunshin no Shisui was any indication, with enough practice it could be effective in combat, too.

And being able to perform it was a sort of badge of a true ninja, just like being able to do the Gokkyaku no Jutsu was in his clan.

A few pointed questions, and the identity of the Snake's apprentice was easily revealed, and it was none other than the crazy examiner of the second test, Mitarashi Anko: she was a special jonin, expert in poisons, assassination and interrogation and was privy to more than a few of her old sensei's techniques, including his summoning contract.

She was absolutely perfect, if you ignored her personality, a bit too reminiscent of Naruto for his comfort. Now, he had to plan a way to approach her that would ensure her teachings.

* * *

Akiko looked around, trying to gauge the emotions of people around her. Her mother actually insisted that it was the absolute best way to get a few more hints about social interaction of ordinary people, while she was on the lookout for any fallout from yesterday's date. She still fumed that she had been conned by both her mother and Teuchi in going to a date with Hinata. Even if she did most of those things on an impulse born out of ignorance, they could have stopped her!

Ah, well, at least Hinata-chan was happy when they separated, the happiest that she ever saw her and her mother had forbidden her, on pain of untold things, to _ever_ tell Hinata anything that could even be remotely interpreted as a regret for what happened yesterday. Mom explained that Hinata's self esteem was so low that even a chance comment from Naruto about her being weak, unworthy, dull or something along that line would drop her to a near-suicide level depression.

Akiko didn't want to be responsible for that, and promised herself to guard her tongue around Hinata-chan. She still remembered Neiji's words to Hinata that day at the preliminaries and realized her mother was right. She was so completely insecure that until she got her some encouragement, she probably contemplated dropping out after just a few lame insults.

Having Hinata get a little more self worth was worth a small embarrassment like a date, right? Right?

She returned to her main job, looking around for any new rumors sprung up from yesterday's events, but apparently their 'date' went unnoticed by most people. Even running while pulling her by the hand didn't attract too much attention, because Ichiraku's ramen restaurant was rather near from where she intercepted her or they didn't realize who the two children were.

It was a stroke of luck, actually. Heaven only knew what her tormentors would spread if they got wind of Naruto 'manhandling' the Hyuga heiress, or worse, dating her!

* * *

Naruto finished packing his travel stuff in a storage seal under his clones' eyes. They had been created to help him gather everything he would need and warn Tenten, Hinata, Kiba and his team that he was going away for a while. Since he created 4 of them at once, each had just a fifth of his reserves (replenished since Akiko's creation after all those hours) and while they lasted, they would teach Tenten about seals, as he promised. He would wait to finish her instruction with the glaive when he returned. In any case all four of them were ordered to disperse themselves within 3 days, since he didn't want anyone other than the Hokage to discover the true lifespan of his shadow clones.

"So are you ready, brat?" said Jiraya, entering from the window.

"Yes, Ero-sennin." he said, shouldering his small backpack. Within it there were mostly writing implements and scrolls, everything else was sealed in those same scrolls, while a few of the battle-worthy ones were in the appropriate compartments of his new chunin vest.

Jiraya was a little miffed at being called that again, but didn't comment; he simply cuffed his head and marched him out of the house, and out of the village gates.

* * *

Kakashi looked at his team. While it looked like it was a full roster, Naruto pointedly told them that he was just a clone, mainly for his teammates' benefit, since the Hokage already informed him of Jiraya and Naruto's mission.

Sakura looked at both her teammates, those chunin vests looked good on both of them, but especially on her Sasuke-kun.

"So, dobe, why are you here with just a clone?" asked a slightly miffed Sasuke.

Kakashi looked at their interaction, and was satisfied to see no true animosity.

"Well, I didn't want to leave without at least saying a few goodbyes, so a clone was the very best alternative to coming in person. Ero-sennin insisted in leaving immediately."

"Where to?" asked Sasuke.

"I don't know, the pervert didn't tell me before leaving with the original. I just know we must escort back to Konoha someone, I was never told who. It's a c-rank mission."

Kakashi interceded, saying: "Sasuke, you too, tomorrow or the day after, will be assigned a simple c-rank with an experienced supervisor. It's something of a tradition. After that you will be assigned to a chunin squad, still supervised by a jonin, to do a slightly harder c-rank under the nominal command of the more experienced one. That, naturally, unless something unexpected comes across. After that you'll be ordered to lead a reserve genin squad in a d-rank mission and finally under the command of a jonin in a chunin squad to do the first easy b-rank. They are something of a rite of passage, somewhat, making you experience every facet of a squad: the solo mission, the classical patrol setup, the leadership role and a mid-level mission setup."

Sasuke was slightly interested, since it was a tradition and not a law he had not been told about it in the protocol lessons. During his first 'solo' mission he would have more than enough time to think of a strategy to get Mitarashi Anko to teach him. He still shivered thinking back to an hour earlier, when he approached her outside what people knew was her favorite dango shop. She had actually threatened his manhood (and his second-most cherished ambition, indirectly) if he didn't leave her alone. Even demanding a suitable explanation didn't award him the expected results, and he had to retreat after the kunai shower she sent his way. Even if they were frighteningly accurate in their aim, it wouldn't be actually enough to deter him, but it still made him rethink his approach strategy. He could not afford to beat her into submission, since he wanted her willing cooperation. A few days away in a c-rank mission would allow him to think about a better plan than the failed 'approach and demand training'. She was obviously a psycho, no wonder she was Orochimaru's apprentice, they suited each other perfectly. Nonetheless, he would persist, no one denied an Uchiha his training!

"So, that is considered my mission with Ero-sennin as backup?" asked the clone, intrigued.

"Well... in a way, yes. Technically it's Jiraya's mission, but unless you are going to fail he probably won't interfere." answered Kakashi. "He just happened to be in a hurry, probably because your target has a tendency to move often."

Naruto nodded. It made sense, actually. He just hoped Ero-sennin briefed the Boss about his mission before actually reaching the target.

"Well, since Naruto can't spar but can use his chakra, I'll give you a bit of ninjutsu training."

Naruto was happy to have left a clone, because he really appreciated Kakashi's lesson, as he taught a c-rank elemental jutsu to each of them. He learned the Wind Release:Breakthrough, a technique used to send a blast of wind to throw away an opponent. By its effects it looked like a smaller version of the one Orochimaru used on them during the second test. Sakura learned a jutsu that apparently created a spike of rock from the ground, while Sasuke was trying to learn a way to electrically charge kunai before throwing them, since apparently the chakra manipulation required for that jutsu wasn't completely and instantaneously copied by his sharingan, but it looked almost three fourth completed just from the start, so his bloodline _did_ help. Finally their sensei was making use of his library of stolen jutsu for the benefit of his team!

* * *

They scheduled little study sessions after Tenten's team training for three days, as planned, and after Tenten complimented his appearance with the flak vest he explained his actual situation. She looked rather surprised that he would use this time to train her in seals, but after a quick explanation about being a clone and the subsequent realization that beginner mistakes could cause him to injure himself, causing his destruction, she understood. But even a clone could teach her academic material such as seals, so they dropped down, pulled out writing implements and he started explaining.

Tenten was an avid learner, she quickly gobbled up the exploding tag seal, so much easier than the storage seal she already had mastered and thanked his lucky star he didn't have to meet her in a future chunin examination, with her Twin Rising Dragons joined with almost unlimited exploding tags...

"No, seriously, what kind of metal makes a weapon blade orange?" asked Tenten for the tenth time, completely changing the topic of the previous discussion.

"Tenten, I'm not going to tell you anything more. It's a family secret, you have to respect the fact that I won't tell you!"

"Damn!" said the girl, returning to her seals.

She was awfully stubborn about it, and asked something about that every time she could get away with it. Especially since he himself had no idea of that particular answer. Yes, he crafted it, but he had only provided the appearance, the guidance and the power, the pyreflyes did the rest.

He _did_ test the blade, naturally, a few days after the invasion but his dismal knowledge of metals didn't allow him to identify the material, either. It was sharp, though, he could cut rocks if he applied enough pressure, just about three-fourth of his actual strength. It may seem a lot, but during a battle and with chakra enhancement it means a _very_ sharp edge, and if it ever broke, he could disperse and recreate it in a second and a half, he clocked it.

And Tenten's future lessons were the key to deliver that sharp edge to his enemies.

Unfortunately, even Tenten admitted of not being particularly adept in polearms, she knew just a little more than the basics, but it was a start and much more than what he found in the library: it would put him in a place where he _could_ start creating his own style, at least until he found something good, somewhere. Maybe his mother could contact some long dead glaive master willing to part with his/her secrets!

* * *

Naruto walked beside Jiraya, who seemed unwilling to use a shinobi pace to reach his destination and was using the 'panoramic pace' as he called it.

"Alright, brat." said the pervert passing to Naruto a water-filled balloon. "Show me your progress."

Naruto didn't hesitate and shredded the balloon in little less than a second with just his chakra.

"Good, you practiced your speed, too. It will be useful. The next step is this." he passed a storage scroll to Naruto and took two rubber balls from his pockets. Naruto put the scroll in his easy access vest slots.

"For the second stage of the Rasengan, you must develop the power. Use what you learned destroying the water balloon to make this rubber ball explode.", he performed the exercise before Naruto's eyes and showed him the blasted remains of the ball. "Air is harder to move with pure chakra, and I would forbid you from using wind conversion if you were able to do it, just like I would have forbidden your use of water elemental conversion for the previous stage, because it is not the point of this exercise. Rasengan is the pinnacle of shape manipulation of chakra, a high chunin level skill, so learn it well because it will be immensely useful in many other jutsu."

Naruto nodded and took the second ball that the pervert was passing him and started trying to rotate the air within.

Just like Ero-sennin said, it was much harder than the water balloon...

* * *

Itachi Uchiha looked at his shark-faced companion, after receiving a message from his informers in Konoha: "The nine tails is going to Tanzaku Town."

"So we are finally going to grab it, eh? Sounds good!" said Kisame, caressing the hilt of Samehada.

"He is being protected by Jiraya of the Sannin, so we must be careful. Fortunately, even great men have their weaknesses..."

* * *

Naruto smiled as the rubber ball exploded in his hand. It took him only 3 days to complete the second stage, to the complete surprise of Jiraya. He was even more surprised when he learned that Naruto managed to complete the first stage in 10 days, too, and used the remaining 20 to calmly raise his execution speed, and the Super Pervert was secretly contemplating murdering a few of his old academy teachers. How could those beasts have wasted that potential? It was criminal! Luckily Umino Iruka remedied most of the damage, but if he had been under competent and unbiased teachers since his start at the academy, he would be near jonin level by now, if not stronger. His taijutsu had now risen to mid-high genin level, just like his genjutsu and this with that damn seal to compromise a bit his chakra control! And his seals, he was a natural, no doubt about it. Only his father managed to create his own seals before even becoming a seal adept, and Naruto created an e-rank one from scratch to protect his home from defacement and was planning such an ambitious one that he too wanted to contribute to its creation, but he doubted it could be done at all. His sensei already explained to him his 'alter ego' Akiko and Naruto wanted to create a seal array that allowed him to create her visual image in complete overlay with his chakra circulatory system, to fool the byakugan. It was an extremely specific seal, that allowed Naruto, and only him to appear as Akiko, and just her, but even with that limitation the task was daunting, an s-rank seal at the very least. How to do that, Jiraya himself had no idea because the byakugan is able to _see_ chakra and would see the overlay of the henge without any problems. Naruto explained to him that he had an idea and tried to explain it to him, but he didn't understand it fully, since Naruto said something like a 'fake direction' that wasn't visible to the naked eye, or similar nonsense. How can a direction be invisible? Or fake, for that matter? Well, if he managed to do it, he surely would end up in all seal books as one of the greatest seal master, one day and if he failed, it would still be good seal training, in the jonin level range, no doubt.

Well, since they were about to enter Tanzaku Town, he would teach the brat the third stage of the Rasengan and begin the mission.

* * *

Sasuke smirked at his cleverness. He managed to convince the Hokage to be assigned Mitarashi Anko as his mission supervisor while he was tasked with the delivery of a missive to the Fire Lord. It was also a political move, no doubt, to show off the last loyal Uchiha to the nobles of Hi no Kuni, the Land of Fire to the people who admired him at the arena no more than a month ago, fresh from his promotion.

Unfortunately, his cleverness cursed him with the most annoying mission he could remember!

The purple-headed snake bitch was annoying as hell, even more than Naruto. She wasn't impressed by his clan, his bloodline or his status, and laughed at his abilities and taunted him relentlessly. He had to reign himself so often that if he didn't practice restraint almost constantly for the last months by having to be with Naruto he would have tried to kill her a few hours in the mission. However, he was rapidly approaching his limit. He wondered if insanity was contagious, because he was contemplating gutting that woman if she made one more crack about his manhood or if she compared him again to Itachi! In any way!

Despite that he endured, and planned. He would find a crack in her armor, and then he would strike. After two days with that witch, he had no more qualms about using blackmail, public embarrassment (hard to do to someone who habitually dresses THAT way) or even.... urgh... seduction to get what he wanted from her. But he would keep that last as a desperation last minute resource.

However slitting her throat and leaving her to die was becoming more attractive every day....

* * *

"So, I have to contain the rotation at the maximum power?" asked Naruto, looking at Jiraya's hands.

"Yes, brat, it's correct. It is also the hardest of all the three stages, but once you manage it, you'll just have to increase your execution speed to use it effectively. As I told you before starting, be careful with this jutsu. It will inflict a great deal of internal damage to a human hit with it, if it doesn't shred it directly. It _is_ an a-rank jutsu!"

Naruto nodded, taking the balloon from Jiraya and trying for himself the Rasengan. Naturally the balloon got shredded within instants.

"Keep going, brat. I bought five hundred of them, so don't worry about those."

"About our mission, Ero sennin?" after the dispersion of the clone who went to Kakashi's lecture, he realized that Jiraya still hadn't told him the mission objective.

"We have to convince my old teammate, the Slug princess Tsunade, the legendary medic (and sucker) to return to Konoha and assume the direction of the hospital. And... uh.. also the Hokage wants to train her as his successor."

"What?!" yelled a surprised Naruto. "The old man wants to retire?"

Jiraya sighed, and said: "He already did once, brat, remember the Fourth? The fact that he resumed the mantle for twelve years was a credit to him, but he's tired and he's becoming too old for the position. Tsunade is one of the strongest kunoichi Konoha ever produced and probably the only one who could satisfy the Hokage, the Fire Lord and the Council as his chosen successor."

Naruto nodded. Even if he wanted that position, he was now aware of the fact that he wouldn't be ready in time to let the Third retire in peace. But if this Tsunade was a teammate of the pervert, she was probably as old as him, so when she was finally ready to retire herself he would be ready to take the mantle.

* * *

Sasuke gritted his teeth on the return voyage to Konoha with his 'supervisor'.

After being fussed upon by the nobles of the daimyo's court (especially the girls) he was subjected again to the bloodthirsty eccentricities of the demonic Anko.

But his surprise was total when the psycho told him, just before entering the village gates, that he 'wasn't that bad for a brat' and that she 'would consider teaching him' if he impressed her somehow.

She had been testing him! Damn her! And he bet she enjoyed seeing him squirm, seeing him hold himself from mauling her bloody corpse until he could no longer squeeze blood from her extracted heart with his own hand!

Oh, but he would show her! He was an Uchiha! Failure was not an option!

And he had a lot of frustration to pay back....

* * *

Morino Ibiki, the head of the Torture and Interrogation department, looked at the newly promoted chunin with a worried glance. "You went a bit too far, Anko."

"Well, the brat deserved it all. Never seen a more arrogant prick outside the Hyuga clan!" said Anko, defensively. "He had no consideration for me or my skills, he just wanted my jutsu and probably the snake contract. He almost _demanded_ them last week! At least now he wants to beat my little challenge and is going to work to earn that privilege!"

Ibiki nodded. "Just be careful that your little ploy doesn't come back to bite you in the ass."

Anko laughed and leaped away. Ibiki just sighed and disappeared.

OMAKE:

Sasuke sat at his desk, writing up a devious plan to humiliate that snake bitch. His blueprint was ready, his trap was perfect, he was such a genius!

He prepared his trap, tying a giant boulder over a plate filled with dango sticks. Just beside it, a small sign with "FREE DANGO" written in black ink.

Sasuke looked through his ACME(tm) brand binoculars, with a kunai ready to cut the rope...

In the distance a laughing "beep beep" could be heard.....


	22. Insecurities

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 22: Insecurities

by Chronodt

Naruto destroyed his thirtieth balloon, when he heard knocking at the door. As soon as they arrived at Tanzaku Town, since it was almost dinnertime, the old pervert decided to find somewhere to pass the night before starting their search in all the gambling halls in town, but their plan went to dust as soon as a pretty girl made sweet eyes to the pervert. He dumped Naruto so fast that he found himself alone with both of their baggage, the key of their room and an order to practice the Rasengan while he was out before he could even start a protest.

Leaving the destroyed balloon on the ground, he rose to open the door, when on the other side he saw two ninja. Missing ninja, exactly, since they had slashed forehead protectors, one of them, of the leaf! And … he had a fully developed pair of sharingan eyes! How could it be? Wasn't Sasuke the last of the Uchiha?

"Is this truly the nine tails?" asked the blue skinned one, whose face resembled a shark.

"What the?" gasped Naruto, while behind him he heard his mother scream:

-_Naruto! Hurry out of here!_-

He didn't wait another second. He tried to slam the door in the face of that Sasuke look-alike and he ran toward the nearest window, but the sharingan wielder simply stopped the door with a hand and threw a kunai at his leg with the other, hitting and pinning him to the wall.

Naruto screamed, those two were of another level altogether!

"So, what do you say, Itachi, can I cut his legs so he doesn't try to escape again?" said the shark-looking one.

Naruto didn't wait and opened the Initial Gate, both to heal his leg and get a bit more chakra to summon a shield bearing toad to guard his escape, but as soon as he started making the necessary handseals, the shark-man weaved his wrapped up sword above him and the chakra he was molding disappeared.

"What?" asked a surprised Naruto.

"Heh.. my Samehada eats chakra, boy. Now say goodbye to a few limbs!" said the man, swinging down the mighty blade when it was stopped by a toad.

"So you still can't manage to not get in trouble without me, brat?" said Jiraya, entering from the window Naruto wanted to flee to. He had on his shoulders that same woman who caught his attention earlier.

"And for your information" he said to the two missing-nin "you don't seem to know me very well, because I'm much better at seducing women than at being seduced myself!"

-_Probably because women have enough good sense to not even try, pervert!_- said Kushina, a little relieved nonetheless for his timely arrival. Unfortunately, Jiraya could not hear her.

He then posed for the missing nin and declared. "I am Jiraya, manliness incarnate! When I wish to, all women fall at my feet awed by my very presence!"

-_...or rather scream away in horror..._- commented an amused Kushina.

Naruto was ignoring them both. He wanted to Scan those missing-nin, but with that guy's sharingan eyes active he would see the probe and attract their attention again. Even if he loathed to admit it, they were way above his skill level. Still, using the toad as visual cover, he removed the kunai from his leg and used Cure to hasten his healing. He could surely have used Cura now, if he knew it, due to the muscular damage, but he would leave that to his innate White Chakra regeneration. He also managed to use Haste on himself, to have a chance to defend himself should the pervert not be enough of a deterrent, as soon as his wound closed. Its effect would end in a few minutes, but it would be a great help. He also prepared himself to cast it on Ero-sennin, should they decide to attack.

"We are leaving, Kisame." said the guy called Itachi.

"I won't let you leave so easily. Summoning Technique: Toad Mouth Bind " said Jiraya after a few lightning-speed handseals.

Walls, ceiling and floor immediately gained a fleshy appearance, surprising Naruto.

"Don't worry, Naruto, it's the effect of my jutsu."

The two missing nin started running in the corridor, toward a window.

"We are inside of the stomach of the great fire toad. No one ever escaped from here." he said with a smirk, pressing his hands on the 'floor', but after hearing an explosion, he ran up, turned a corner and saw a hole in the wall where a window once was. Black flames licked the flashy walls around that very hole, testimony of the escape of their enemies.

"They escaped?" asked Naruto. It would have been nice to see them captured, but from his viewpoint, just escaping with his life was a victory. Each of them was probably as dangerous and strong as Orochimaru!

"It looks like it, brat." said the pervert, while starting to write a high level fire containment seal, explaining it to Naruto, while he was at it. After sealing the black fire, he dispelled the jutsu just by stomping his sandaled foot and the hotel walls resumed their previous appearance.

"Who were they, Ero-sennin?" asked Naruto, after collecting their baggage. They would change hotel for safety reasons.

"Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. S-class missing nin. Their objective is.. the fox."

Naruto paled. So they wanted him, indirectly. He had to remember to check the status of the demon tonight.

Suddenly, they saw a kunai arriving and hitting the nearby wall. From behind, while they were distracted by the sudden movement, they heard a familiar yell coming from the broken wall: "DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Jiraya had just the time to speak a surprised: "Gai?" before the spandex-clad jonin hit him in the nose with a high-powered kick...

"Gai sensei? What are you doing here?" asked Naruto, not at all worried about the pervert.

"Uh? Jiraya-sama? Naruto?" asked a confused Gai. "Uh... er... sorry Jiraya-sama, I was in a rush and I was looking inside using the reflection of my forehead protector, because I didn't have a mirror with me, and seeing a blurry suspect face..." the jonin said, embarrassed.

"So you didn't do it on purpose?" asked Jiraya, a little miffed.

In the background, Naruto could hear his mom's laughter. He himself took pains not to start laughing as well.

"Well, it doesn't matter. What were you doing here, Gai?" asked Jiraya.

"I was investigating that explosion... I was returning from a mission when I caught sight of it and decided to take a look. I heard of rumors of a certain missing nin in the area..."

"So you saw us, distorted by the forehead protector and decided to attack me?"

"Er..." Gai looked a little sheepish. "...you looked very suspect in it, Jiraya-sama..."

Kushina started laughing even harder. Even Naruto chuckled, restraining himself from dropping on the ground and laughing.

Jiraya didn't find it as amusing.

* * *

"So you are trying to get Tsunade-sama back, eh?" said Gai, having heard from a few other jonin of Jiraya's mission.

"Yes, she should be here in this town." answered Jiraya.

"Don't worry, Gai sensei. We will bring her back with us to Konoha and she'll heal Lee in a minute!" said Naruto, with enthusiasm.

"Hahaha! Well said, Naruto! You are truly fanning your flames of youth! And I have the perfect present to let them burn even brighter! The secret weapon behind Lee's incredible strength!"

"Uh? Are you giving me Lee's weights?" asked a surprised Naruto.

"No, no you are not yet ready for that level, even if it would be very youthful of you to try, but what I was speaking of is _this!_" Gai reached inside his jonin vest and pulled out.....a green spandex suit.

-_Argh! The horror!_- screamed Kushina.

"Uh..t-thank you, G-Gai sensei!" said Naruto, with a completely fake smile.

"I'm glad you like it, Naruto! Its perfection drove many men to the road of youthfulness, its elegant design will make training so youthful and comfortable that you won't wish to stop!"

Jiraya thought that if Gai had the space to carry that monstrosity with him, he could have brought a mirror. Naruto, instead, wished he didn't have that extra spandex vest at all on his person!

Luckily, Gai left immediately after, to return to Konoha.

"I hope you plan on burning it as soon as you can, brat. If you dare to wear that abomination I'll abandon you here and now!" said Jiraya.

"You can count on it, Ero-sennin!" said a determined Naruto, going through the hand seals of an e-rank fire jutsu, normally used to ignite campfires.

Both of them looked with satisfaction the small fire burn to ashes that horror given... spandex.

* * *

Asuma sat at his favorite barbecue restaurant with the rest of team 10. Shikamaru just returned from his supervised 'solo' c-rank mission and they were all very curious about it.

"..yes, we were going to get from Wave the remaining payment of a mislabeled mission about three months ago." said Shikamaru, still a little laid-back.

"The one Sasuke-kun went on?" asked Ino, curious. She heard a lot of gloating from Sakura about Sasuke's prowess in that mission as soon as they got back.

"Yes. The local daimyo gave Tokari-san and me the remaining payment, and insisted on giving his personal thanks to the Hokage and team 7."

Chouji ate a bit more meat, then said: "What did they do?"

Asuma spoke up: "They stopped a crime lord from getting control of their island nation and protected the man who built the bridge connecting it to the mainland, increasing all-around trade. If they managed to gather an a-rank payment in three months I guess they did more than good."

"Oh, you didn't hear the better part, yet. They named the bridge as the Great Naruto Bridge!" said Shikamaru with a smirk, looking at Ino.

"Great NARUTO Bridge?" yelled Ino. "How the hell did _Naruto_ of all people get a bridge to his name? From what Sakura told me, if they had to name it from someone in team 7 they would need to name it over Sasuke-kun! Or at least Kakashi-sensei! Sakura told me that in that mission Naruto had been dead weight and had been the cause of a lot of Sasuke's injuries!"

Asuma made a (fake) surprised face: "Really? From Kakashi's report it didn't look that way, you know..."

Chouji moved slightly away from Ino, still eating. Shikamaru sighed, murmuring "Troublesome blonds" under his breath.

Ino looked venomously at Asuma. "So, what happened there?"

Asuma ate a bit of food, then answered: "I cannot tell most of the details, but while Kakashi battled Momochi Zabuza, the demon of the Hidden Mist, Sasuke and Naruto fought his apprentice. Sasuke was knocked out, but Naruto, thinking him dead, got angry and smashed that boy a bit. That same boy, even if he was losing, managed to quickly leave the battle when his master was in danger, shielding him from a death blow from Kakashi and dieing in his stead. Zabuza was later killed by a mob hired by the crime lord that originally employed him."

"Uh..." Ino quickly realized that Sakura's version had been a tiny bit different from what she had just heard...

"Still, I have no idea why they named the bridge after that boy." said Asuma, concluding his 'report'.

"I do." said Shikamaru. "He raised the hope of the people in Wave. I have no idea how he did it, though, but everyone there thinks of him as a hero. Especially the bridge builder himself, the original client of team 7's mission, and his family. Very troublesome, that. I even heard rumors of him belonging to some kind of noble clan in that area, but it's probably just gossip."

Ino snorted. "If Naruto had any noble blood he wouldn't have been allowed to be the class clown like that!"

"But Naruto is an orphan, Ino." said Chouji, "Who would teach him how to behave as a noble?"

Ino was rendered speechless, she could find no counter argument and it didn't sit well with her character. "Well, someone would have!" she concluded, a bit lamely.

Shikamaru smirked, seeing the blond flustered, for once. It was almost worth the trouble she had gone through with that mission to see it. And the fact that it had been Chouji to cause it was even better; his insecurities were second only to Hinata's...

* * *

Akiko closed the math book. She finally was able to complete all nine questions from the first test in the chunin exam. Even if she still found it boring, she realized that this kind of knowledge is both appreciated and required from most higher level ninja and being able to complete them all on her own let her have a satisfied glow. And she had to do something to keep herself occupied, after all!

Training was out, any benefits she accrued physically wouldn't transfer to the original and would deplete her limited chakra store. Better to leave it to the Boss, so she trained her mind instead, because unlike the Boss she had access to the library, and what better use of it than to solve those three questions she couldn't get in time?

From the rumor part of her mission, she heard a weird, but surprising one about the name of Tazuna's bridge, and having followed up its source to Ino, she could only speculate on its truth. She didn't dare to directly confront someone who knew Naruto personally, not before getting the training Hokage-sama promised her at least, it would be a bad thing to blow her cover to Ino, one of the gossip queen of Konoha!

And, for once, she wanted to help spread a rumor instead of suppressing it, but she had to verify it, first or she would ruin her reputation if it somehow turned out false.

Well, the name of a bridge would be something that would end up in the Archives, to update maps and such, and in an area freely accessible even to civilians as a public and commercial landmark.

Gathering a few scrolls, now that she finished with her math, she went to the Tower to do a bit of 'geographic' research.

* * *

Anko looked at Sasuke, who glared at her with hate, from the bottom of a pit and completely entangled in ninja wire. Luckily, this time there were no snakes involved. "You are getting repetitive, brat!" said Anko, cleaning her nails with a kunai. "Trying to ambush me won't get you anything but pain, you know?"

Sasuke didn't deign her with an answer.

"Oh, well, I'm late, so have fun getting out of there!" said Anko in a taunting voice.

"DAMMIT!" screamed Sasuke, as soon as he was sure she was out of hearing range. This was the third failed ambush, that witch had somehow avoided all of them and lured him in traps of her making, instead!

No, this too, was the wrong approach. She was too good for him, yet, even if he loathed to admit it. Still, that made making her his instructor even more appealing!

* * *

Sakura looked at Sasuke with increasing worry. He had become strange, these last few days. He looked tired, and paid even less attention to her than usual and without Naruto's family jutsu to help her during their sparring she wasn't even a warm-up for him. She had to talk with someone.

"_Ino is the only one who could understand me!_" thought Sakura, leaving the training ground toward the Yamanaka's flower shop.

A few minutes later, Sakura revealed Sasuke's strange behavior to her rival, all the details she noticed, including the fact that he recently was talking often to himself with an obsessive tone, but with a voice so low she couldn't overhear what he was saying.

"I don't know what to do with him, Ino! He has his mind somewhere else. What If he found a girl he likes?"

Ino looked at Sakura with a similar worry. "Well, we'll follow him, naturally, and see for ourselves!" she exclaimed. "As co-presidents of the Uchiha Sasuke fan club, we cannot allow a common tramp to lay claim on our Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura nodded, happy to have enlisted her rival's help as they began planning their 'stalking' turns.

* * *

Hinata was sparring with Kiba under the eyes of her sensei. With many of the lightly injured shinobi back into active duty, some of the jonin sensei were free to return back to full-time instruction, just like Kurenai-sensei. And her teacher was glowing with pride with her progress! Her teammates have probably even wondered if she was an impostor, but their enhanced senses always confirmed her identity without any doubt. Shino even complimented her for her new attitude! Oh, she was still shy and sometimes stuttered, but after 'that day' she almost flew on her feet, and even more, when Naruto sent a clone to personally say goodbye even when his sensei dragged him outside the village in a hurry.

Hinata realized that she was worth something in Naruto-kun's eyes! Maybe not as a girlfriend, she would probably never be good enough for it, but Naruto-kun at the very least considered her a friend! She could use that realization as a shield against her family's insults and jeers, against their cold eyes and barely concealed disgust for her 'weakness'. Her juken, too, was finally advancing by leaps and bounds without that psychological baggage. Could this be the secret behind Naruto's strength? Could he have something so precious to him to use against the even greater hate of the whole village?

* * *

Sasuke looked at his target. She was again eating at that very same dango restaurant, was she baiting him? His investigations told him that the woman usually only ate there no more than once a week, but these last 3 days she had been there, at the same time, at the same table, at the same seat.

She was probably aware he was spying on her, but what was the point of it? What did she want? In what way should he 'impress' her? His taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu skills didn't; in fact she often taunted him about them. What was he lacking that that witch wanted to see?

* * *

Sakura and Ino observed with dismay their Sasuke-kun looking at the slut who presided the second exam, hidden from view by a couple of Sakura's best genjutsu. She knew that unless Sasuke-kun activated his sharingan he wouldn't notice them.

"So...is that the bitch who stole our Sasuke-kun's heart?" asked Ino, seething.

"I hope not, she is... she is..." said a dismayed Sakura.

Ino nodded, too. She was an adult woman, neither her nor Sakura could very well compete with her, either in looks, ninja skills or.... feminine charms, dammit!

"I won't give up, Sakura!" said Ino, fire in her eyes.

Sakura looked at the determined Ino beside her, and recovered her resolution. "Neither will I!"

"Together against that slut?" asked Ino.

"Yes, a temporary truce until she is defeated!"

They nodded in resolution and resumed their stalk... er... observation.

Meanwhile, neither of them noticed Sasuke as he was looking around, a sudden shiver in his back making him a bit more cautious than usual...


	23. Meeting Tsunade

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 23: Meeting Tsunade

by Chronodt

Naruto walked silently in the seal room, accompanied by his mother. The fox now had just two tails left, and one looked visibly smaller then the other. Still in silence they left for the mixing room. Once there, Kushina examined the dials, and said: -_A little more than two months, Naruto-chan, if you continue that alteration of the mixing rate every night._-

Naruto nodded. "Good. After two months, those two guys will automatically fail their mission, even if they capture me afterward. Not like I'll make it any easier for them even after that!"

Kushina nodded, but added: -_Don't underestimate them. They left just because Jiraya was with you, next time you may not be as lucky._-

Naruto nodded, he realized that, too. After fighting Orochimaru in the forest of Death, if that could be called a fight, he was very well aware what a ninja of that level could do to him. His only hope was to get strong enough to get away before the pervert decided to dump him to go travel the world again, just to get to those female hot springs.

Speaking of those two missing ninja...

"Mom, don't you think Jiraya knew a little too much of their motives? Could he have taught me the Rasengan not as an 'ace', but rather as a way to surprise them?"

-_Yes, it's likely. Probably he didn't want to alarm you._-

"Ok, time to step up the training. From tomorrow on, I'll double the clones working on Life and on opening the third Gate, even if it will leave me quite a bit tired. I have to become strong enough as soon as possible!"

-_You should consider adding a new Guardian to your 'stable', too, Naruto-chan. Ixion has almost completed his riding lessons and will soon grant you permission to train with a new one. Can I suggest you to get a Water Guardian?_-

"The missing element in team 7, eh? Yes, I think it would be a good idea. Suggestions?"

-_There are two I would suggest: either Leviathan or Siren. Leviathan is the strongest, if you summon him near a lake or a similar large body of water he could summon a huge tidal wave able to raze to the ground a small village._-

"Wow!" said an awed Naruto. That was an impressive power.

-_Siren, instead, is more of a genjutsu specialist. Her strongest attack, 'Silent Voice', is a combined ninjutsu/genjutsu that will join a rather weak elemental water attack with a powerful genjutsu that will temporarily inhibit its target from expelling chakra from their bodies, making most ninjutsu and genjutsu casting impossible; if the Hyuga didn't have the byakugan it would also have been the perfect way of stopping their Gentle Fist. It's a very hard genjutsu to dispel, borderline Kage level. I tried it on myself, but without using Esuna or without someone else dispelling it for me I couldn't escape it._-

"A really tough choice!" said Naruto. "But that Itachi has the sharingan, he could break a genjutsu like it wasn't even there and then help his partner. No, against them it would be useless. This time I'll choose the powerful one, I'll leave Siren for later, she is too interesting to pass altogether, but not what I need now."

Kushina 'nodded'

-_Be careful, Naruto-chan. The powerful summons will often want to test you to see if you are ready to wield their power in battle, and I'm forbidden from telling you the tests I undertook to get their approval. You too, won't be allowed to tell your kids in the future, so don't get grumpy with me._- she said in a light tone.

Naruto just snorted.

* * *

Naruto destroyed another balloon, the eightieth since this morning. It took them 4 days to check all the gambling halls in Tanzaku town, and Naruto discovered two things: the first was to never let Ero-sennin get his hands on his savings again, and the second that he was lucky. Really lucky. Maybe it was a bit of karma payback from all the unfairness in his life.

From the 100 ryo he brought with him from Konoha as 'pocket money' he only managed to spend 10, the remaining were dilapidated by the pervert on sake and women. Luckily, he won 1500 ryo at a slot machine using a coin he found just lying on the ground nearby. Gama-chan had never been so bloated!

"She had been here." said the pervert, suddenly. Naruto looked at the pervert over the empty balloon he was blowing up and saw a group of people carrying away the debris of a destroyed wall.

"Our target?" asked Naruto, wondering how the pervert deduced that from a collapsed wall.

"Yes, only Tsunade-hime could have done this with a single punch. She was here with two more people, but one of them went in a different direction." Naruto noted that he was looking at the tracks in the ground, so he followed them himself with his eyes and reached the same conclusions as the pervert. The one not with their target met her, talked for a while, apparently enough to upset her to the point of having her destroy a wall just to make a point and then they separated. Their target's companion even jumped ahead of Tsunade, in a protective way. He found a couple little needles still on the ground in the general direction of the third person. Poisoned needles, but the poison was already inert. He looked at Jiraya, who was looking at him approvingly.

"Yes, a little show of power from our princess. I guess he was either the bearer of bad news or a debt collector."

"Debt collector?" asked a surprised Naruto.

"Well, Tsunade has a habit of borrowing large sums of money and then gamble them... but she sucks so much at it that she always loses. That's why in the gambling halls she is known as the Legendary Sucker... Also she evades paying back by changing her apparent age, from somewhere like 10 years old to 35 or 40. She hates getting old, so generally she won't show much more than that."

Naruto sweatdropped. And they wanted such a person as the next Hokage? But could the idea behind her age control technique be adapted to improve her 'Akiko seal'?

* * *

Sasuke was feeling observed again. It was the fourth time today, "Sakura or Ino, this time? Don't they have anything better to do in their free time than disturb my training?" he thought, with distaste. He actually began to have some hope for his pink haired teammate, but somewhere in the last 2 days she had devolved in the fangirl she was in the academy days, and between them and Anko he was seething with rage. Luckily he had the supervised border patrol to look forward as a way to get far, far away from all those annoying girls, and maybe it will also make them realize their stupidity on their own. Wishful thinking, maybe, but one can always hope...

* * *

Anko observed the scene below her with interest. Despite the obvious misunderstanding of those two little girls, she thought that her aspiring pupil could get a taste of his own medicine. She would straighten up those two fan girls soon because from what she saw in the exams they had potential and she didn't want it to be wasted by pining upon a boy who wasn't yet psychologically ready for a stable relationship. And as an interrogation specialist she knew it was true.

Despite everything, today, too, she would return to her favorite dango shop, and she asked herself how long Sasuke would take to realize that the easiest way to satisfy her condition was just to come to her and ask politely to become her student. After all as a recognized walking ego, asking politely IS a surprising action!

And once her friends at the Interrogation and Torture department got wind of her little challenge, they bet on the time needed by the Uchiha to realize it: Ibiki bet on 2 weeks, Kaoru on 6 days, Iroko on a whole month, Genta on 3 days, while Saeki already lost, she bet on 12 hours. Anko wanted to bet, too, but she was refused because she would rig the result, spoilsport!

Still, she had to talk a bit to Inoichi about his little princess, as he often referred to her, and setting her head straight about being either a kunoichi or a fangirl. Being blind to the obvious defects of a person just because he or she is good looking, cool or whatever else is a suicide path to a ninja, either male or female. And misreading his greed for sentimental attraction speaks of a lack of basic training that frankly left her with a bad taste in her mouth. Kunoichi are trained in the academy to spot those reactions in boys, to exploit them during infiltration missions, not to fall prey to them! Academy standards have clearly decayed greatly from her time in it, as brief as it was before the Bastard took her in!

* * *

Akiko waited patiently in her house. Naturally to maintain her distance from Naruto himself she always entered as a boy the Boss presented to a couple of neighbors as a friend of his, tasked of watering his plants while he was away. A perfectly reasonable excuse, since she would still enter and exit the apartment with care to avoid most eyes, letting 'himself' be seen just once or twice a week.

Today it was the day of her first report to the Boss, and he would soon summon Gamakichi, give him most of his winnings to keep them safe in his house, far away from the stealing pervert, and send him her way to get her report. Since technically she _was_ Naruto, she too had signed the contract and Gamakichi could appear before her in an instant and without having to summon him again, using blood she couldn't shed or precious chakra she couldn't waste, with just the cost of a few cheap sweets for his collaboration.

Resuming Naruto's appearance, to avoid Gamakichi's teasing, was a last moment addition to the plan, because Gamakichi was still a child and often played with Konohamaru each time he summoned him in Konoha. He couldn't afford to let Akiko's 'secret identity' get out that way!

Rereading the report, he checked its completeness and nodded. The Boss would soon know that Wave had the very same bridge they defended named after him!

* * *

Sakura looked at Sasuke, using the last bit of her free time to check on him. Her love mission was costing her a lot of her allowed leisure time! But it was worth it. She saw how his desire to conquer the affections of that slut was pushing Sasuke in his training, something she was never able to do. She was losing him. She was losing him to a … a …

Trying to not think about _her_, Sakura returned her attention to her clock. Ino was late. Her turn started almost 5 minutes ago and she wasn't here yet. Could she 'have caught a Kakashi' as Naruto put it?

The thought of his teammate giving the name of their sensei to an imaginary lateness disease, called naturally 'Kakashi's syndrome' was a really fun one, completely deserved, too, and lifted her spirit even after her love troubles!

What was more, the day he left from Konoha, using just the clones he left behind, he incredibly was able to infiltrate the printing press of a famous medical encyclopedia, add a page defining that disease, including recurring symptoms such as laziness, inability to stop reading porn and hallucinations (in regards of his impossible excuses) with his photo in it as the case number zero, and print a few copies without anyone being the wiser. She had proudly put one of those in her personal library, and no one has yet realized it, for what she knew. Naruto placed one in the public library incoming book pile, so it would be sorted with the new entries, one in the jonin lounge, one in the Hokage's study room and they were waiting his return to send one to Kakashi himself. Sasuke, too, got one, and he said with a smirk that it was a fitting punishment for their sensei.

Ino finally arrived, in a rather unhappy mood.

"What happened, Ino?" she asked in a low voice, so Sasuke would not hear her.

"Daddy found out, Sakura. She forbid me from spying further on Sasuke-kun! And he told me to make you stop, too! I bet it was that witch's doing!" said Ino, again with fire in her eyes.

"Uh... how?" asked Sakura.

"My father and that witch work in the same department, that's how! Oh, but it won't stop me! Not at all! If we can't do it, we will simply enlist the help of the rest of the fan club to do it!"

"But.. most of them gave up when they failed the true genin exam!" said Sakura.

"We will convince them to help us at least to get Sasuke-kun away from that slut! She is completely unsuitable for him!"

Sakura thought about it, then nodded her head. It was a perfect solution! She would be able to continue training on Kakashi sensei's schedule, get a bit of leisure time and still be updated on Sasuke's activities toward Anko.

"Let's do it!" said Sakura.

Behind them, Sasuke shivered uncontrollably, having such a bad sensation that he stopped training to go pack for his mission, even if a few hours ahead of schedule.

* * *

Akiko looked with incredulity when Ino and Sakura almost literally grabbed every one of their female ex-schoolmates from the Academy, talked to them a bit and then they left all together to destinations unknown. It was worrisome, especially with the stupid rumors around about Sasuke and Mitarashi Anko. But if they were putting together again that stupid fan club, maybe they actually believed them! In fact, considering who Ino was, she could very well be the source of that rumor!

She was actually torn between helping Sasuke or leave him be, because she knew how much they were bugging him at the Academy, even if she was actually envious of the attention he received from them at the time, but she knew also how much he despised having any help he didn't need.

Fortunately, Sasuke would leave the village for a whole week in a few hours, but when he returned, she would need to observe him, to see how he reacted. He didn't want his progresses from asshole to human being destroyed due to a swarm of cackling fangirls not leaving him alone. With his current improvements, Sasuke was the closest thing she had to a brother, and wouldn't let a pack of brainless girls damage him!

* * *

Naruto entered a bar. They failed today, too, in their search of the elusive Slug Princess, and the pervert decided to go get a drink, naturally under his protests.

However, luck was on their side, finally, because as soon as they entered, they saw their target. Tsunade, looking like a 25-year old, was looking at Jiraya with surprise.

"Jiraya... what are you doing in a place like this?" asked the slightly reddened (from alcohol) Tsunade.

"Well, We were actually looking for you." said Jiraya, sitting himself at her table. Naruto simply copied him.

"So, they are using you to babysit, now?" asked Tsunade after looking at Naruto, who was a little miffed at the comment. Still, he kept silent.

"Well, I asked for it, really, so it's not like I'm against it." said Jiraya, helping himself to a bit of sake.

"So what do you want from me?"

Naruto answered, this time. If this was his mission, he should well start doing it! "We need you back in Konoha." he said, calmly. "As the director of Konoha Hospital."

"Forget it." she said, instantly. Jiraya stood silent, for now. He would pull out the big guns, the return order signed by sensei himself, only if the brat failed to convince her to come willingly. He had been convinced by the brat too many times to not realize that Naruto has a true instinctive ability to change people to not let him try, even if he knew Tsunade much better than him.

"Well, can you at least say why? I have to write it in the report, you know..." said Naruto.

"Silence, brat. I have no reason to give to you!"

Naruto smirked internally and let go the first hit: "Oh, no, grandma, it is not enough!"

Tsunade darkened immediately. Her assistant, Shizune, paled a little.

"What... did... you... call... me?" she asked, in a whisper. Naruto hoped his hunch was correct, if what Jiraya told him about her was true.

-_Naruto-chan, what are you doing?_- asked a panicked Kushina.

"Well, you and the pervert were teammates, so you are as old as him, aren't you?"

Tsunade didn't answer, but the increased temperature in the area could be a hint of her displeasure...

"Tsunade-sama! Calm down, please!" said a panicked Shizune.

"However, old man Sarutobi is even older than you. He is tired and wants to retire again. And the very first person he thought of was you. The only one he could entrust his beloved village to."

Tsunade cooled immediately, and paled. Then she became angry again.

"He wants me to become Hokage? Is he mad? Only fools would want it! Most of them died because of that stupid position!"

Naruto, too, was becoming angry at her words, how could she besmirch the Hokage?

No, he had to remember his behavior lessons, breathe in, breathe out and calm himself before saying something scathing to that woman!

Tsunade, meanwhile was continuing her rant: "... and even sensei almost got himself killed just last month by Orochimaru if not by his incredible luck..."

"What luck are you talking about, grandma! The Hokage won that battle! It was that snake bastard who got careless and was forced to flee!"

"That doesn't mean anything, brat! Sensei is well past his prime, he was lucky to defeat Orochimaru as he did! Such a lucky shot won't happen again!"

"How do you know that? Did the snake talk to you?" asked a suspicious Naruto, remembering the tracks they saw earlier.

Shizune was about to retort, but a scathing gaze from Tsunade stopped her.

"What is to you, brat? I have nothing to do with Konoha anymore." said a smug Tsunade.

"Apart the fact that he mocked your ancestors by using them in a fake resurrection technique?"

"Fake?" asked a shocked Shizune. Tsunade shot her such a hate-filled glare that she quietened again.

"Yes, fake. Nothing can let a dead soul leave the Farplane against its will, and even then never in a permanent way, even if they wished so. And I'm pretty sure the Shodai and the Nidaime didn't want to come to the bidding of the snake bastard! That 'resurrection technique' works by creating a sort of living bunshin of the dead by using ashes of the particular person you wish to create a puppet of. It won't last very long, either."

Tsunade looked at him with a look of surprise. "The Farplane... how...?" then she opened her eyes wide and turned her gaze on Jiraya.

"YOU!" she said, with venom.

Jiraya simply smiled, while Kushina smirked. Tsunade always wanted to make her her apprentice while she was alive. So she connected the dots, eh?

"Damn you, sensei!" said Tsunade, under her breath, but then she continued. "No, I still won't come. Being Hokage is a death sentence! No one but a fool would accept it!"

Naruto at that point exploded.

"How dare you! How dare you insult them! They were great people, greater than you can ever hope to be!"

Tsunade ignored him and turned to Jiraya. "Your new apprentice is even stupider than your last one."

"Shut up! I won't let you insult them! They are heroes! And I will become Hokage, too! Just like them!"

"That is a foolish dream, you know? Have you an idea how many people died trying to accomplish it?"

"Yeah...I can name them all, if you wish to!" said Naruto, recovering his composure and remembering one of his mother's lectures, a few months ago, about his lifelong dream.

Tsunade looked shocked at his declaration. Could he really have thought about it up to that point? And he _still_ wanted to become Hokage?

"Why?" she asked, simply.

"Because I want to protect everyone in my village, the very place I was born in, the people who live in it, every tree, every house, every dog, everyone! Even if they hate me I will still protect them!" said Naruto, with an edge of steel in his voice.

Tsunade had a flashback of Dan and Nawaki saying almost the same things...

"Alright, brat. I will consider it, give me a week to think it over. But if I come with you to Konoha, I want to do some research on you in exchange!"

Naruto paled.

-_Mom? What should I do?_-

-_No, you don't want to be a guinea pig. Even if with her help you may even develop new White jutsu and improve her general medical ninjutsu usable by every medic-nin, you don't want to risk letting details of our bloodline public. Accept her medical training if she wants to give it to you, but no experiments._-

"No, I cannot, Tsunade-sama. I cannot allow too many details of my bloodline to be made public. But any medical discovery anyone can use I will be happy to give to you."

"Damn, just like her..." babbled Tsunade, still drinking. "Well, I have a few days to change your mind, brat, don't think I'm going to give up!"

* * *

In the shadows of the bar, Kabuto scowled. Naruto-kun was ruining Orochimaru-sama's plan, and alone against two of the Sannin was suicide. But Tsunade-sama was still reluctant, and was going along only to please the brat. If he managed to kill him while he was alone, Tsunade may very well change her mind, and separate herself from Jiraya, allowing him to kill the apprentice and kidnap the Legendary medic.

He had to hurry, because Kimimaro didn't have much longer to live! Even if he gave Tsunade a week to think it over, if she took more than 2 days he had already planned to kidnap her and take her to Orochimaru either way. This would just force his hand sooner...


	24. Kabuto's ambush

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 24: Kabuto's ambush

by Chronodt

Anko groaned. Inoichi had been way too lax with his little princess. She told him to make her stop that nonsense, not just forbid her to stalk the boy!

Groaning about stupid overprotective fathers, too fearful to step on her daughter's feelings, she observed their little reunion, studying a way to use this little misstep to her advantage. With the exception of the two genin, the others were truly pathetic, no wonder they didn't make the cut at the genin exam. They were an annoyance at best and an hindrance most of the time if they decided to keep you under observation, and it would aggravate Sasuke's state of mind even further. This would not do, as long as there were just Ino and Sakura it could have been tolerable, but now...

Well, she had about a week to devise something evil enough to scare away all those little girls playing ninja without harming them. Pity that, if she was allowed to maim them even a little it would do wonders to scatter the rest away...

Ah, well!

Time for the last stay at her restaurant, even if Sasuke was away packing. He could have a flash of inspiration at the last minute, after all!

And she could eat a few more dango, as well...

* * *

Naruto continued working with the Rasengan, in the hotel room they stayed the last few days. Tsunade came a couple of times, to get him to agree to a few tests, but he refused each time.

Tired of getting disturbed, he started wandering the town, just to pass the time. Passing a slot machine parlor, he was tempted to see if his luck was still as good, and bought 3 ryo worth of coins. He won around 500 ryo in around one and a half hour.

-_Naruto-chan, I really cannot believe it!_- said an awed Kushina. -_You should stop being a ninja and be a full time gambler, you know!_- she said, in an amused voice.

-_It wouldn't do for me, mom. It was good to win, but I... well, I don't feel like I'm doing anything. I just stay there and put coins in, it isn't that much fun. And that card game we played after that was boring._- sent Naruto, putting away his winnings inside Gama-chan.

-_You should consider sending a few clones around to win some more money while we are here. No more than around a thousand ryo from a single parlor, to not raise suspicions. Fill a few small phials with blood, so the clones can use it to summon a toad and send the money back home. You could use a small capital for emergencies when you go back._-

Naruto thought about it. It was a very good idea. He also would send a phial of blood to Akiko so she could send a message, too, if she came upon some kind of emergency.

-_You are right, mom. I'll do it!_-

He created 5 clones, a reasonable amount since he had already created 20 of them to train in Life and for opening the third Gate, gave them 100 ryo each and sent them to win no more than 1000 ryo from a single place, then change, as suggested by his mother.

Tired, he returned to his hotel room, where he found Ero-sennin writing his perverted novel.

Sitting on his bed, he returned to his Rasengan training, despite his low chakra stores.

* * *

Kabuto observed his quarry wandering in the city. He was tempted to attack him now, but he wanted to study his progresses before killing him. That technique he was trying to perform was unfamiliar, but it was apparently far from being complete. However, being a genius and personal assistant of Orochimaru-sama gave him an insight on the capabilities of that jutsu once complete, and his instinct told him it was an a-rank one at the very least. As long as he didn't delay the attack too much, it wouldn't pose any kind of trouble. And his luck at gambling made a sharp contrast to Tsunade-hime's abysmal luck, but if it somehow translated into combat, too, he had to pay attention to not let anything to chance during the ambush. Not that he needed it, because despite his improvements, his movements told him the boy wasn't even chunin level, the Third must have pulled a lot of strings to have him promoted. Without any time to put together a strategy or write up a seal, he was a middle level genin, absolutely no threat to him.

Jiraya, meanwhile, stayed mostly into his room, and it was good, because he didn't dare get too close to the legendary ninja. He even heard rumors about the Akatsuki being here, but it wouldn't be wise to mingle with Orochimaru-sama's previous acquaintances, and they had already been driven out by Jiraya himself, if his sources were correct.

No, his plan was to wait until tomorrow to see if the boy repeated his training and gambling routine. He would wait until he created and separated from all his clones, and then he would attack the weakened original, killing him and disposing of the body. Jiraya would surely start searching for the boy when he didn't reappear in a few hours, and that would be the perfect moment to get rid of the apprentice, in a very bloody way so that Tsunade-hime would be properly cowed and meek, then knock her out, bind her with chakra-suppressant seals and bring her back to Rice country, so that Orochimaru-sama could 'convince' her to work for him. And that pet pig would do very well as dinner, to avoid being tracked by scent until he could cover his tracks.

Now it was time to get ready for his plan...

* * *

Akiko opened her eyes wide when she saw what the small toads were bringing her. A _lot_ of money! The boss was surely working hard if he made something around 10,000 ryo in a single day! She was absolutely flabbergasted, however, when the first clone dispersed and the memories of the clones gambling came back suddenly.

Looking at the money in a resigned way, she decided to store most of it away and hiding it with her family scrolls. She took a bit of the blood in the phial sent with the first toad to craft a blood-seal as a sort of safe, then secreted the remaining blood on the Hokage mountain. It would not do to hide the key to her family scrolls in her apartment as well!

* * *

Sasuke jumped to the next tree, while keeping his squad leader's pace. For once, he was actually glad to be in a boring mission, because there were _no_ fangirls in sight! To his left there was a chunin he barely knew, Hirota, the nominal leader of this mission and on his right and a little behind there was the lazy Shikamaru. Their jonin supervisor was behind all of them, but he didn't say his name. He was around 25 years old, a little scarred and gave the idea of being a kenjutsu specialist, because of the 2 swords strapped on his back. Their mission was very simple: they had to patrol a commercial road to ensure no brigands took on their mind to attack merchants from and to Konoha and the land of Sand. A low-risk patrol, but from an economic viewpoint still important. The perfect place for 2 rookie chunin to guard.

The need to took notice of his surrounding didn't stop his trained mind from trying to make a plan to ditch his reformed fan club and get Anko interested in training him. Nothing came to mind, but he had a whole week to think it over.

* * *

Kabuto was ready to strike. Just like yesterday, his target created his clones and they went in their separate ways. He even waited for Naruto to try a few more times his new technique to let him be distracted a bit further, but the boy noticed that something was wrong, somehow. He dropped the balloon and put his hands into the handseal for the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Kabuto went for the kill, but Naruto was able to create a few clones between the two of them, but they were no great distraction; he destroyed them all while reaching the original and despite his feeble efforts of defense, he managed to hit his target right in the heart, severing the chakra circulatory system leading to that organ and ensuring that his death would come very soon.

* * *

Akiko stood immediately, receiving a sudden shower of frightening memories. She examined them, trying to understand what happened. The Boss heard mom's voice, suddenly...

_-Naruto! There is an enemy ninja about to attack you!- yelled Kushina, while Naruto was practicing the Rasengan. Dropping everything he had in hand, he immediately created a few Kage Bunshin to inform every clone that there was a battle and he would need to summon. However that ninja was very strong and destroyed every clone in a matter of instants._

Akiko panicked, as the memories ended with the destruction of the last clone in battle. All the clones who were practicing dispersed immediately, while none of the gambling ones did. Probably they were getting help or were approaching the battlefield to give help.

Akiko cursed loudly, she was powerless to help! But then she thought for a bit. Just like the toad summons, the Boss and her were one and the same...

Opening wide her still half-full Summoning Gates she created her Summoning Glaive and reached the barrier of the Farplane, hoping to reach a Guardian who could help her true self. She poured all her desperation, her need and her fear on that link, and she could feel one of the gambling clones adding his much smaller contribute, but with it came also the feeling that the Boss needed immediate medical assistance as well as protection, or he would die. Carbuncle reacted immediately to that call and appeared to the gambling clone's aid. Akiko nodded, but she continued her plea. Carbuncle could protect Naruto, but he needed medical help, now!

She continued to search the Farplane barrier with all her willpower, when suddenly something answered.

Grabbing her probe and following it to her mind, she felt a gentle mental touch from whatever Guardian answered her call, and she heard a gentle feminine voice: -_I am Kirin, Akiko-Naruto-sama, I am the Greater Guardian of Healing. For this one time I will let you summon me, until you can prove your worth._-

* * *

Kabuto looked with worry at the little green plush toy who appeared from thin air and crafted a glowing barrier around Naruto-kun. He already tried and failed to get past it, but it was of little importance; the creature was apparently unable to stop his master's death and the most it could do was to stop him from disposing of the body. It was a slight hiccup in his plans, but the brat was dying even now. Unfortunately the boy managed to create a few clones he was forced to destroy, alerting the others of foul play and as such he had no time at all to finish his mission. He abandoned the true Naruto and ran to Tsunade's hotel to finish his mission before any further interferences came forth. His failed ambush already cost him a great risk of meeting Jiraya and he didn't dare to lose even a second.

If he stayed a minute more, he would have witnessed the summoning of a magnificent white unicorn with a green mane and tail inside of Carbuncle's barrier. Her white ethereal form lowered her head, so that her glowing pearly white horn touched Naruto's chest...

* * *

"Ero-Sennin!" yelled a clone, entering from the window of their hotel room in a hurry. "The Boss has been ambushed by a ninja three blocks southward from here!"

Jiraya didn't hesitate; he dropped his papers and shot out of the window followed by a winded clone, who was explaining what little he knew.

"It was Kabuto, but he was wearing a sound forehead protector, he must have been a spy. He wanted to attack me by surprise, but a hidden clone saw him and raised the alarm. He destroyed all the clones a few instant later, so I don't know the actual situation."

Jiraya nodded and raised his speed further, leaving the clone behind. As they arrived they saw... a green-maned white unicorn whose horn was glowing and touching Naruto's heart. A clone jumped down, Summoning Glaive in hand and said: "Kabuto left in a hurry, the unicorn is Kirin, the Greater Guardian of Healing. She is fixing up the Boss and between her and Carbuncle he will be ok."

Jiraya nodded, and Carbuncle let them pass through the barrier to check the true Naruto.

"He'll recover." said Jiraya, relieved. Then he thought about the reasons behind the attack, since it didn't make any sense to attack Naruto, unless...

"It's a diversion! His objective is Tsunade-hime!" said Jiraya, "You continue to cover the true Naruto, I have to go!" and then he jumped away with such a speed that the clone couldn't even manage to keep him in his sight for long.

Resuming his vigilance, the clone created his Summoner's Staff and opened his Summoning Gates to give Carbuncle and Kirin a little more power.

* * *

Running at top speed, Jiraya reached Tsunade's hotel within two minutes, and saw Shizune on the ground, healing her own calves, and a puddle of blood in the middle of the road. The road itself was destroyed, a clear sign of Tsunade's anger. This was not good.

"Shizune? What happened?"

"Jiraya-sama! Tsunade-sama has been kidnapped by that sound medic-nin! A couple copies of that blond kid followed them, but the kidnapper is too strong for them! If one of the two is the original he will be killed!" said Shizune, not stopping her self-healing not even for an instant.

"He got the original brat first, but he's still alive, he was incredibly lucky and is even now recovering. How long do you need to be able to move?" asked Jiraya, scanning around.

"No more than a minute, Jiraya-sama."

Jiraya nodded. With the increased weight of an adult weighting Kabuto down, a minute was an acceptable delay.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes, his chest still on fire. He saw the unicorn summon lifting his horn from his heart, then dispersing in a cloud of pyreflyes.

"Boss, you're alright!" said one of the two clones around him.

-_Naruto, oh that's a relief!_- said Kushina, deliriously happy. -_For a moment I feared..._-

"Who was that summon?" asked Naruto, his voice still a little weak.

-_She was Kirin-sama, a Greater Guardian, of Healing specifically, Naruto-sama._- answered Carbuncle. -_The Greater Guardians rarely accept a summoner and even then only when he has successfully contracted a lot more than the 2 you have contracted for now. And until you satisfy her minimum requirements, I wouldn't try to summon her again._-

Naruto nodded, then looked at the two clones. "You two dispel yourselves." he said to the clones who witnessed the events. He let Carbuncle dissipate, since Kabuto was far away and he was healthy again. As soon as they obeyed, he became aware that, for a very brief moment when the first clone witnessed his dying state and tried to summon Carbuncle, that Akiko was the one to summon Kirin and for that very same instant the minds of the two clones were in contact, sharing not only power, but scrambled thoughts as well! Very brief and unfocused contact, but contact nonetheless. It was through that contact, in fact, that the clone was aware of Kirin's name and title when Jiraya came to check him.

This opened up a sea of possibilities, that he should examine later, when he had the time.

-_Naruto-chan, you must return to the hotel!_- said Kushina, but Naruto wasn't listening.

"No, mom, that traitorous bastard wanted me dead just to create a diversion! I won't let him attack Tsunade!" and he created a clone, then dispersed him immediately to inform every other clone still in existence to track the bastard. His answer came back almost immediately, as one of the two clones tracking Kabuto dispersed itself to hive him the required information.

Naruto didn't lose any time and created the Glaive to summon Ixion. He got a lot faster than the last time, completing the summoning in barely two seconds, then he mounted the lightning horse-shaped Guardian and they jumped ahead, in the direction provided by the clone. With that information also came a memory of Kabuto carrying an unconscious Tsunade over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and he realized that Kabuto's plan worked.

Kushina's pleas to stop were completely unheard...

* * *

Kabuto used everything he had to flee away, with a legendary ninja on his trail nothing he could do would let him lose his trail, so he didn't even try. He used all his resources to flee as fast as he could, hoping his lead would prove to be enough to reach his backup traps. That damn brat just had to be so lucky to notice him, or was one of his clones who did? But he was sure he found all of them before approaching his target, so what tipped him off? He was sure his stealth was way beyond his meager observation abilities, so he couldn't have seen him. A long distance observer? Unlikely, given the buildings around and his position. It was more plausible the boy could summon some sort of air golem, invisible to the naked eye, just like that green plush toy who could create such strong barriers at a whim. This only summed up to a single ugly picture: he messed up, badly. Outsmarted by what he presumed to be a middle level genin, what a shame!

Sure, the boy was probably dead now, but his clones have probably alerted Jiraya, and he is no fool. He would immediately see that it was a failed diversion, reach the correct conclusion and begin his hunt. He lost way too much time fighting the apprentice, and to subdue Tsunade he had to cut his wrist deep, losing way too much blood in a small time. His blood clot pill and blood replenishing pill were taking effect, but his body would need a little more than an hour to be back at full efficiency.

* * *

Akiko woke up, her sudden and traumatic opening of the View Gate, the third Summoning Gate, almost caused her to be dispelled. She couldn't remember how she managed it, actually, but now all three Gates were completely depleted. Considering they were half-full since she was a clone created from a fully rested Naruto, she poured the equivalent of a Gate and a half to remotely summon an unknown entity and power her long enough to finish her job. Fortunately Kirin, the entity she summoned, sensed her need and desperation through the Farplane barrier and decided to help her, or rather to help the dying Naruto.

And the original's ideas about all those interesting possibilities was a worthy topic to concentrate on, even if just to alleviate boredom!

* * *

Kabuto had just a fraction of a second of warning before a bolt of lightning shot through where his head should have been had he not evaded. He turned and saw the brat, probably one of the last clones, riding a sparking... weird unicorn with a lightning shaped golden horn.

"So, coming here to avenge your creator? You were truly a pathetic ninja, but you managed to damage my mission, so you should be really glad of that accomplishment before returning to your oblivion..." he said, while judging the capabilities of another weird summon of the blond. It was incredibly fast and obviously lightning natured. Naruto looked comfortable riding it, but he apparently had no experience in fighting while mounted, especially with that large polearm, who actually _was_ a good weapon while riding a horse.

While Kabuto was trash talking an analyzing him, Naruto was focusing all his Chakra control to send a bit of White Chakra on Tsunade, creating the Esuna construct to free her from her forced sleep and restraints, but he hadn't counted on Tsunade being still traumatized from whatever the traitor did to capture her. Still she had sense enough to elbow the traitor with her super-strength and sending him flying a dozen meters. A really bad performance for Tsunade, but she was drowsy, shocked and in a bad position, but it was enough to impress Naruto, who didn't know of her freakish strength.

He didn't lose anymore time before Scanning both Kabuto and Tsunade. Tsunade was Kage-level, naturally water-natured with, like Jiraya, various secondary and tertiary elements. She was a ninjutsu specialist, in particular medic jutsu. She also had a seal on her forehead that stored her unused chakra for use on a variety of very powerful jutsu, amongst which a forced full regeneration technique whose use probably would age her prematurely. Her favorite technique relied on her perfect chakra control in her muscles, enhancing them to giant-monster-level strength and making her taijutsu deadly. Her genjutsu was also Kage-level and she actually was using one even now tied as a subconscious activity to alter her apparent age, so it wasn't a seal, what a pity! She had a summoning contract with slugs and had several joined techniques, both healing and combat related, similar to Jiraya. She was also suffering from a long-term post-traumatic illness, and she hadn't practiced a lot in the last few years, letting her physical fitness slightly deteriorate.

Kabuto, instead, was overall at an elite jonin level. Like Tsunade, his specialty was medical ninjutsu, while his taijutsu and genjutsu were jonin level. He was earth-natured, with fire as his secondary. He was a bit battered by whatever fight Tsunade and Shizune put up before successfully kidnapping the legendary medic and his body was currently under the effect of a soldier pill and blood replenishing pill. He also had a bloodline: the 'old blood', whose working was a little chaotic. It included increased aggression, increased strength and regeneration. He didn't have the medical training necessary to understand any more about it.

"Kabuto bastard!" yelled Naruto, before jumping off Ixion and charging the traitor, while the Lightning Guardian circled to attack him from behind, in a pincer maneuver. He realized he wouldn't be able to attack while riding Ixion, so a double attack would be a better tactic. Creating four clones, he dispersed the Glaive and took off a kunai, the unfamiliar weapon too unwieldy for his untrained hands. Fortunately Kabuto was paying him little attention, dismissing them as the minor threat and focused on Ixion, instead. He paid for it, but just with minor nicks, Kabuto avoided most of his attacks while destroying 2 clones and sending a third against Ixion's horn, blinding the Guardian and destroying the clone. He managed to get his glowing hand on Ixion's front legs, but his disappointment was evident. Naruto didn't know what he was doing, but whatever he tried to do to the summon, he was evidently immune to it.

-_Naruto-sama, he is a medic-nin. He tried to sever my foreleg tendons, but I restored them immediately. Be careful when approaching him._- said Ixion, in his mind.

Tsunade, in the meantime, was using her abilities to recover faster, but she could still see the blood

on her hands from her kidnapping attempt and was slowing significantly her progress.

"So, our little Naruto-kun has still a little bite, even after his death?" mocked Kabuto, even while he was cursing himself from letting Tsunade wake up.

"I don't think you have that much time to gloat, traitor! Tsunade is recovering, and you can bet the pervert will arrive within moments! You are completely cornered, so you should give up!" Naruto, said, with a completely false bravado. His two Summoning Gates were too depleted to use Ixion's special attacks, so his only option against a ninja of that level would be the Rasengan... but he still hadn't managed to do it, even if he was really close. His c-rank wind jutsu had absolutely no hope to even faze him and... he heard a warning from the last surviving clone just in time to avoid a heart stab in the back, but he couldn't stop himself from crying out in pain from the wound suddenly appearing in his shoulder, courtesy of a grinning Kabuto.

The Kabuto before him smirked, and dissolved into a pile of mud.

"So you were still alive, Naruto-kun, and you still live by another stroke of luck. You didn't learn your lesson, after all..." said Kabuto, again in his mocking tone. He raised his hand again, while he could hear a panicked Tsunade yelling for Kabuto to stop, but the jonin ignored her, intending to stab Naruto again. His strike was, however, intercepted by Naruto himself with his open palm, piercing his palm, but stopping Kabuto's arm, too by grabbing his hand with his pierced one and holding him tight. Ixion chose that moment to pierce Kabuto's free arm with his horn, refraining from electrocuting the older teen because Naruto would feel it too. However, Kabuto was now defenseless!

"This close, you won't be able to evade this!" said Naruto, while focusing his chakra in his palm, but he couldn't contain the power, until the clone came up and used his hands to focus it, compress it and contain its power, creating his first perfect Rasengan.

"But that is..." said a shocked Tsunade.

"Take this, bastard!" yelled Naruto and his clone together, punching the complete Rasengan on Kabuto's chest and launching him away. Ixion calmly walked toward Naruto, who was collapsing down due to fatigue and blood loss with his horn still dripping blood. His clone took a guard position to cover the original, while they looked as incredibly Kabuto rose again. "_Regeneration abilities are good to have, but a pain to fight against..._"

Kabuto coughed a little blood, and said: "If I didn't concentrate my chakra to heal myself that would have been a killing blow, Naruto-kun. But I see that I am not the only one who is regenerating..." Kabuto pointed his still bloody kunai toward Naruto's hand wound, which already had significantly reduced its bleeding.

"However, now we must part, Naruto-kun, uninvited guest are coming too close and I don't wish to confront them." and he sinked into the ground, vanishing from sight.

Tsunade was coming close to Naruto, still visibly shaking.

"I told you, grandma. I won't let myself be killed before I become Hokage!" he said, still a little weak. Those words cut deep into Tsunade's mind, and she saw again his loved ones dead before her eyes, after they declared their wish to become Hokage... and then superimposed to their faces returned Naruto's declarations a few days ago...

Realizing she was no longer trembling even at the sight of blood, she started healing him.

"You were good, brat. He was an opponent way above you, even if we banged him a bit. Close your eyes, I have a present for you."

Naruto was a little apprehensive, but his mother encouraged him to comply, so he did.

Reopening his eyes, he saw Tsunade's necklace around his neck, a little deja-vu of his genin graduation...

"This belonged to my grandfather, the First Hokage. I recognize you, Naruto Uzumaki and now I, too, believe you'll be able to realize your dream."

Naruto actually started to get a bit teary-eyed. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama!" he said with a trembling voice, but he managed to recompose himself before the pervert and Shizune (with the pig Tonton as a tracker) joined them in the battlefield.

* * *

Kabuto bottled the bit of Naruto's blood he could gather from the kunai. It was too little for any true testing, but if used in conjunction with his medical practice he could prolong Kimimaro's life for a few more weeks. Orochimaru-sama won't be happy with his failure, but at least he got something out of it...


	25. Homecoming

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 25: Homecoming

by Chronodt

The pervert, as soon as he arrived with Shizune, took a look at the battlefield.

"Now explain it to me, brat." said Jiraya, slightly irritated. "Why did you feel the need to charge a jonin alone? You could have just sent a clone and Ixion to delay him, you _knew_ we were coming!"

Naruto was a little shamed of his behavior. He often tried to control this impulsive side of him, as his mom called it, but he had trouble correcting a habit of a lifetime in just a few months...

"I... have no excuse, Jiraya-sama. I was angry, I was hurt and I suddenly received memories of Tsunade-sama's body being carried away like baggage. I wanted to save her!"

Jiraya palmed his face. He managed to beat away this bad habit from his father, and now it looked like he had to repeat the feat on the son...damn all Namikaze and their hero complexes!

"Ok, brat, I can understand that, but tell me why you thought you could even survive to delay him. Even if you met him in the chunin exams, seeing him with a different headband should have told you that every skill he demonstrated there would be just the tip of the iceberg!"

Naruto was about to answer, when his mother told him something: -_No, don't say anything, Naruto-chan. You will only dig your own grave further..._-

Jiraya looked at Naruto as he was about to say something, then stopped and became pensive. Good, maybe he got through that diamond-hard head. Time for a last little push, to drill a little more caution in his head while he's receptive.

"After that guy almost killed you back where I found you, I thought you had more sense than to go and hunt him down. But what would have happened if you didn't have the Rasengan mastered? What if you weren't able to stop his movements to hit him? You were lucky that Kabuto underestimated you so much, because he was no less than Orochimaru's right-hand man!"

Naruto looked shocked, that Kabuto was so close to the Snake? And his second in command no less?

-_Jiraya is right, Naruto-chan, you were more than a little reckless. You even forgot that Kirin drained a lot of chakra from your Summoning Gates to heal you and you found yourself here with no energy to spare to power Ixion's attacks. And you even forgot to remove your weights!_-

Naruto reddened, as he realized he truly forgot about them. He was ready to upgrade them further, then, since he no longer even felt their presence.

Finished his business with Naruto, Jiraya looked at Tsunade, who was being fussed upon by her apprentice, and asked her: "Are you all right, Tsunade?"

Tsunade nodded. "Yes, Jiraya, and I must say that despite everything I like him. You chose well, even if he doesn't look like that much at first sight. And you were mistaken about one thing, the boy still hasn't mastered the Rasengan... he... cheated, sort of." she said with a smirk.

"Cheated?" asked Jiraya, wondering how one could cheat the completion of that jutsu.

"I used a clone to stabilize and contain the chakra." started Naruto, "I knew I was close enough to succeed if I had some help, but I refused to use that shortcut while I was still training, since you forbid me from practicing that jutsu with more than.. one body, I guess."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that 'rule'" said Jiraya, who honestly had forgotten about it. He simply didn't want to have to explain a new jutsu to the brat every week.

"However this little stunt of yours means you will endure my super-extensive bone-breaking training as punishment until we get back to Konoha!"

Naruto groaned, while Tsunade and Shizune giggled.

At least Tsunade was now more than convinced to go back to Konoha and they started their way back the next day...

* * *

Akiko sat in the middle of her dining room, surrounded by opened scrolls with her notes on the 'Akiko seal'. Since the Boss was kept occupied by the pervert from dawn until he got to bed, he no longer had the time to work on it, so it fell back to her to continue his work. She was actually glad for the pervert's attention, because, even if brutal, his training was highly effective, especially because his White Chakra allowed him to recover faster than an ordinary ninja. She was also thinking about her experience fighting on Ixion. She should really begin training with it, it would be a devastating combo when she managed to get a somewhat decent skill with the Glaive, but she would need a saddle of some kind. Luckily, she could use her item creation skill to conjure it out of Farplane's pyreflyes as she summoned Ixion, but she needed to study a few saddles herself. Maybe she could get a d-rank with the old man about polishing saddles, crafting them or tending to a stable. While ninja almost never used horses, merchants and nobles did and so there were plenty of stables around the village. Some of them, sooner or later, would require a genin team for help. And it would help her cover to get a few d-rank on the field and not only on paper!

* * *

Kabuto entered his laboratory, examining the small blood sample he gathered. The traces of chakra were very small, but he hoped even this very small amount of the fabled White Chakra of Whirlpool could help stabilize Kimimaro.

Orochimaru silently entered the lab as he injected the blood in Kimimaro's heart directly.

"So you failed. What was the problem?" asked the Legendary Snake Ninja.

"Tsunade-sama had... an unwelcome guardian named Jiraya, but unfortunately he just complicated the retrieval. The true problem was a rookie chunin with him, the nine tails' container, Uzumaki Naruto."

Orochimaru looked with avid interest. He, too, recognized his bloodline from the match against the Hyuga, but he didn't realize the boy had grown so strong to stop Kabuto from completing his mission.

"Even if I underestimated the power of his bloodline and was forced to flee by the arrival of Jiraya, I managed to get a bit of his blood. It held a surprisingly poor amount of the famous White Chakra, evidently his bloodline is either still developing or he used all of it to heal himself from a mortal wound I inflicted him earlier. I still hope to get Kimimaro a few more weeks to live, and maybe in that time, if I work exclusively on him, I could at least find the source of that disease."

Orochimaru nodded. If Kabuto could find the source of his degenerative disease, he could use his seed to impregnate a few women and have a healthy body with his delicious bloodline to inhabit in a few years. And with his immortality technique he had all the time in the world, he could easily wait a decade or two to get the Dead Bone Pulse bloodline under his control. "Do so, Kabuto, and keep me informed." he said, before leaving the medic-nin alone with Kimimaro.

* * *

Shikamaru had had enough. Dark mutterings he could ignore. Coldness was much better than troublesome loud blonds every day. Paranoid teammates were good for your survival as long as they didn't suspect you to be an enemy. But having someone speak in his sleep about 'making that snake bitch pay' and something about killing his brother constantly was cutting in his precious sleep-time, and it was maddening, really, since he had duties and could not nap during the rest of the day!

"Ok, Sasuke. Spill it! I'm tired to hear your muttering while you should be sleeping, and it's much less troublesome to hear you now rather than tonight! What has Mitarashi Anko done to you?"

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru, but then he remembered the fellow chunin's evaluations, especially his tactical and strategic brilliance, without considering his IQ. He could give him a hint of what that witch wanted from him...

"I'm trying to impress her so that she would take me as her apprentice." said Sasuke, curt and concise, not bothering to tell him any more than he had to. It would not do for his image to be seen asking for help from someone as weak as him.

Shikamaru nodded. He could guess the result. Considering his nighttime mutterings and their respective characters, he could guess that he demanded and she refused. Not only that, she probably humiliated him in some way. It was a very troublesome thing, why did he want even _more_ training? He already trained every free moment even during this mission, he even made his work harder so to get more benefit from this boring assignment. He really could not understand hard workers.

Speaking of understanding Sasuke...

"Have you tried asking her politely?" mused Shikamaru, and the flabbergasted and shocked expression of his face told him that he never even contemplated that possibility, just like he thought. Funny that, it would be the first thing he would have tried. It must be that bothersome Uchiha pride...

* * *

The Third Hokage relaxed, in a rare moment of quiet and peace. For once, the council was happy, due to the promotion of the Uchiha, and Konohamaru was playing with his friends from the Academy. His son was lazying somewhere and he finished his paperwork a little while ago. He pulled out his 'special' literature, when his eyes caught the book Naruto left him after leaving Konoha, by means of a clone. It was a strange gift, coming from the newly promoted chunin, especially because it was a general medical encyclopedia. Was he hinting at something?

Opening the book, he saw a bookmarked page, with a message written in the bookmark itself: '_The true reason of Kakashi's lateness!_' and then he saw the page. It was clearly a fake, since the style wasn't identical to the rest of the entries, but when he read about Kakashi's Syndrome, with the elite jonin's face printed in it, he began laughing really hard...

* * *

Anko looked at the first girl of the reformed fan club. She wanted to teach these little airheads a little lesson, unfortunately without resorting to physical violence. She had finally had to ask a suggestion from Ibiki, because every idea she put together finished in some kind of injury for the untrained victim. Not that much of a pity, but she would get in trouble.

Ibiki suggested turning the members against each other, creating mistrust, using just the most minor of genjutsu that genin barely out of the academy could detect, so that she wouldn't get into trouble from the academy teachers, either. Not that it would trouble her, but she would have to fill mountains of paperwork because of it and she had much better ways to pass her time. Damn civilians... just maim one as an accident once and they slap all those silly regulations on you...

Reaching undetected her first victim, she started layering over her senses what she wished for her to see: two of her co-members who were nearby simply chatting about clothes, were now in her hearing plotting to catch Sasuke for themselves, to the exclusion of everyone else, and speculating that Sakura and Ino rebuilt the fan club just to get cheap spies to do the dirty work for them.

It was a bit cruel, and that was good, because those two genin wanted to bypass orders they received by using patsies, and the rumor she was starting in the fan club itself wasn't that mush false: Anko knew that deep down neither Sakura nor Ino really wanted for any of those girls to truly have a chance with the dark brooder, and probably they would drop them like rats on a sinking ship as soon as he demonstrated any true annoyance to those fangirls, distancing themselves and probably trying to negate any involvement.

Truly pathetic, really. She was glad neither even reached the finals, either of them would surely end up dead in the first b-rank mission.

Passing on a new rooftop, she saw another target, to disseminate a little more discord, havoc and mayhem. Oh, how she wished to be able to see the faces of those two genin when their fan club deserted or, even better, revolted against them!

* * *

Akiko put down her notes and wrote down the last seal. Her first attempt to create a fake-dimensional seal, if that was a true word, was complete. She still didn't dare to power it because if it backfired it could destroy her apartment or leave her too depleted to exist. Putting the scroll away, she started to meditate. Today's rumor mongering was rather tame, without the Boss here no new gossip related to him appeared, but she almost feared it was the calm before the storm.

Putting away those troubling thoughts, she continued to follow an idea the Boss had a few hours after Tsunade's kidnapping, a logical consequence from the enhanced communications idea sprung up after their brief contact while summoning Kirin: the possibility of creating a new White Jutsu, in particular a true pyrefly bunshin. The ideas behind Item crafting, the basic family summoning method and Shadow Clones would mesh together very well, in theory. Crafting a clone from Naruto's pyreflyes should be possible, even if probably very hard, but its potential was staggering. His pyreflyes were a part of him, just like his shadow and if the unique advantage of the Kage Bunshin translated as well to a Pyrefly Bunshin, he could have an incredible variant of that forbidden jutsu, usable only by his family (hence a new White Jutsu) to create a more solid and as such a more powerful version of an already incredible jutsu. Its chakra requirement would probably be staggering, to the point that even Naruto would have to summon less than 10 of them at once or suffer chakra exhaustion, a true forbidden jutsu!

Her thoughts returned to the necessary manipulation of her chakra, but even if she knew what to do, in a generic sense, she still lacked the background knowledge necessary. She lacked the jutsu creation theories, that his mom told him a few weeks ago were reserved for jonin or higher level ninja.

Remembering the old 'quest' to also get the Celestial Gates book, she decided it was time to start planning a break-in of a restricted area library. She would be unable to perform it until Naruto came back, but she could plan, scout and investigate until then.

It was just a pity she could not simply go and ask the Hokage directly...

* * *

Hinata gathered Akamaru in her arms, gently, petting him, while Kiba got up after he had been beaten up. It was actually the very first time Hinata ever beat the Inuzuka, even if Akamaru remained outside the fight. She felt extremely proud of herself, a sensation that was still very new and felt very strange as well.

"Hinata, that was incredible!" said Kiba. He _had_ been surprised by her last action, but she won nonetheless and lucky shots were also part of a ninja's life. The Hinata of just three weeks ago would have hesitated to strike after he stumbled on a concealed hole in the ground, but the new Hinata hit him in the side and arm, hurting his hip muscles and the right arm to the point where he was unable to move them. And after that it was short work to end Kiba's struggles, concluding with her first victory.

"I concur, Hinata. " said Shino. "You efficiency has risen considerably as well as your drive. I'm sure the next chunin exam will be very different for you, if this change persists."

Shino, as a chunin, was put in charge of their training by Kurenai, while she did a few bureaucratic duties at the Tower. Kurenai also told them that in a few weeks the new mission routine would be to go as a full team on c-rank missions, while d-rank would be performed by Kiba, Hinata and Sakura from team 7, leaving Shino to his new chunin duties, including guard rotations and such. He had already completed half of the traditional post-promotion missions and was waiting for the assignment of the next one, probably related to the 'bureaucratic duty' of their sensei.

"Oi, Shino.. what about me?" asked Kiba.

"You still lack a bit of self-control, you are brash and you purposefully seek out unnecessary challenges. If you overcome these minor problems, I don't think you'll do a bad impression at the next exam. Your combat strength is already more than adequate for a rookie chunin. In fact, if you didn't have to fight Uzumaki at the preliminaries you may have been promoted as well."

Kiba nodded, glad that his teammate was thinking this highly of his abilities. Akamaru also barked in support, and the dog boy resolved to pass the next exam with flying colors!

* * *

Tsunade healed Naruto again, shaking her head seeing the extent of his injuries. They were all very light, Jiraya was a rather good teacher, she had to admit. Knowing perfectly how much he could push the boy thanks to his regeneration, his muscles and reflexes were slowly building up to where a chunin should have, not that he was lacking strength, not at all! Jiraya told her that he just... lacked the finesse to bring that strength to his enemy. In other words a true taijutsu style until he started to teach the brat his father's still unfinished unarmed style.

Studying the boy while she was healing him was also a nice little bonus, but she had to dash her hopes of getting him as an apprentice. His chakra reserves were enormous, his capacity being trained since birth by the Fourth's seal, but his control was average at best. He could not hope to ever be able to use any of her medical ninjutsu unless he practiced for at least 2 to 3 years exclusively on it, and it wasn't worth it. He still needed theoretical knowledge of medicine, and a bit of 'civilian practices' as she used to call ordinary non-chakra powered medical work, and he could be one of the best field medics in Konoha. His mother, instead, was a true gem, her control made her able to learn both her family jutsu and her own creations. Truly a pity she died, she could have been a medical legend even greater than herself!

Well, maybe she could hope in the next generation. Without a demon to imprison, his children would be able to 'take the place' of his mother, their control not hampered by a constantly fluctuating seal. In the meantime she had a Medical Corp to rebuild to her standards and she had to convince sensei she would be a horrible mistake as a Hokage. Despite Naruto's encouragements and pleas, she returned mostly to be a medic again, but she also understood Sarutobi-sensei's problem. The lack of a successor could make his life difficult at council sessions and if something ever happened to him they could appoint someone who was not at all suited to the job, like Jiraya. She shivered at the thought of that pervert as the new leader, using the Hokage's crystal ball to peek in public baths. No way she would ever bath again in Konoha if that came to pass!

Konoha's gates were now in sight, and she prepared herself for her first meeting with her sensei in many years.

* * *

Sasuke was still torn, even if Shikamaru's incredible suggestion _had_ been the solution he had been looking for all this time. Looking back at all his approach tactics, he realized that Anko responded to his rightful pride with scorn and derision. Everything he held dear and let him be above the common ninja she mocked, and responded to aggression with even greater violence. And now he realized why the snake bitch was always at that table every day! She was waiting for him to crack and actually _beg_ her to become her student! It was so obvious, how could he have missed it?

However, he could not simply cave like that, it would be like admitting defeat. He had to dig up at least a little dirt on her or it would feel like surrendering.

Seeing the rendez-vous point with the relief patrol, they exchanged their relative mission scrolls and left to return to Konoha. Now that he had a plan to deal with that snake bitch, he was free to plot against his reformed fan club...


	26. Making plans

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 26: Making plans

by Chronodt

Hiashi Hyuga looked perplexed at his first born. Hinata had acquired in the last few days a determination she never demonstrated before. When questioned about it, the only thing she said, was 'I found my most precious thing.' and refused to add anything else. Her trainers told him her progress was good, good enough to not shame the main family, but she had a lot of ground to cover before rising above the 'failure' rating the elders and Hiashi himself tagged her with. Likewise, after he delivered to Neiji his loved brother's last message he, too, changed. Again, for the better.

In a single month, two of his most stress-inducing problems resolved almost by themselves, and he almost felt like relaxing for the first time in years. Only decades of discipline stopped him from doing so, actually.

Returning to his office, he glanced to a report involving Hinata coming from his own personal eyes and ears within Konoha. Apparently the reason for her sudden change was due to an... accidental date? …..yes, he read correctly. An accidental date with Uzumaki Naruto, who tried to cheer her up and dragged her to a ramen restaurant.

Hiashi sighed again, this was the second time the Uzumaki boy involuntarily helped him, and a barely perceptible smile graced his stony features.

Maybe he should do something for him, just to show he appreciated his efforts, but it should be discrete. He would let his observers check on him once in a while, he was becoming a truly interesting ninja.

* * *

Jiraya stopped Naruto just before entering the Tower. "Naruto, before I forget, there is something you _must_ remember."

"What, Ero-sennin?"

"You must never, and I mean _never_ mention your meeting with Uchiha Itachi to Sasuke, and that includes the fact that he's looking for the fox unless they both are before you and Itachi mentions it."

Naruto thought about it for a few moments, then realized something. "He is the one Sasuke wants to kill, right?"

Jiraya nodded. "He exterminated his own clan in a single night. Every man, woman and child except his own little brother, Sasuke."

Naruto could not believe his ears. His family was killed by his own brother? How could it be?

Maybe it was his status as orphan (despite his mother being 'present' and able to counsel him) but he grew up with the belief that family was the most important thing you could ever have... to throw it away, killing it with his own hands... Itachi must be truly a monster. No wonder Sasuke wants to kill him. No, he won't say anything to his teammate, no need to reopen a still sore wound.

Rejoining Tsunade and Shizune, the four of them entered the Hokage's office after a token wait at his secretary's desk.

"Jiraya, Naruto, thank you. Welcome back, Tsunade. You too, Shizune."

The two women replied with a "Thank you, sensei." and "Thank you, Hokage-sama." respectively.

"Naruto, you can give me your debriefing tomorrow, and Shizune, I must ask you to wait outside. I need to talk to my students alone for a while."

Naruto nodded, and with a respectful bow (what a pain these protocols!) he left the office, with Shizune immediately behind him.

"So, I'll see you later, Shizune. I'm going to write my report and unpack." said Naruto, smiling.

"Yes, Naruto-kun. It will probably be in the hospital the next time we'll see if you continue training like you did in the last few days.", said the apprentice with a smirk.

With a playful rude gesture, Naruto used the Shunshin no Jutsu to get himself in front of his own apartment. It was the first time he actually used it out of training, and he had to admit it was really handy. Preparing himself for a monumental headache, he waved his hand at the Akiko clone, entered the bedroom and laid down in his bed. Akiko dispelled herself and days upon days of memories drilled into his skull until he had to hold his head due to a massive headache.

* * *

The aged Hokage looked at his once-pupils with satisfaction. Despite losing what once was his favorite student to his own depravity, he had been proud of the other two, despite their... habits. At least they had just normal human failings, instead of being inhuman body-stealing monstrosities.

Tsunade attacked immediately, hoping to get the upper hand in her discussion: "Well, since the brat is out, sensei, let me tell you that your idea of making me your successor is completely ridiculous. I have no wish to become Hokage and I'd rather be a full-time medic again than having to make decision for the whole village."

Sarutobi sighed, this would be harder than he though. Considering the start of her tirade, Jiraya had no need of the recall orders, and as instructed he probably destroyed them, by now. His plans were actually better employed if the medic came back of her own free will, and despite her misgivings, he knew she would be perfect as the Fifth Hokage. She had the caring nature, tempered by an iron will that he summarized as the 'will of fire' burning deep within her. A couple years as the head of the Konoha Hospital would also unknowingly train her for his job, to a slightly smaller scale. After all won't she make life and death decision for ninja and civilians alike daily? Won't she need to care for her underlings and patients? Won't she be likewise swamped by paperwork?

Oh, yes, it _will_ be a good training for her future position.

"Well, Tsunade, I must say I hoped that by now you would have seen the wisdom of giving you my hat, but for now I'll satisfy myself by letting you the direction of the Hospital. Uwari-sensei, the current director, is ready to retire and she pestered me for months to choose a suitable successor. I guess she won't mind to let you be appointed in her position."

Jiraya snorted, as if. She probably would have stepped down even if she still were in her prime for the chance to work with the legendary medic.

"Now for the reason I asked your apprentices to step away, I'm about to divulge you what I have classified as an s-rank village secret. It's actually Jiraya who discovered it, so I'll let him explain."

Tsunade turned to Jiraya, who started his report: "I know you are aware that Naruto is the nine tails' container, but until a couple months ago, we all thought that Minato used an imprisoning seal, that is the standard known way of creating jinchuuriki all around the Elemental Nations. However, it wasn't apparently the method used in Whirlpool village, due to the Uzumaki White Chakra bloodline. Minato used a different seal, one designed to take control of the host's chakra and forcibly mix it with the prisoner's youki."

Tsunade's eyes opened wide.

"Yes, as you know, youki is normally poisonous to human cells, but White Chakra actually purifies it, and since the seal also blocks the prisoner's ability to regenerate chakra..."

"The seal is actually killing the nine tails?" Tsunade asked, completely incredulous. "And killing it by a sort of chakra poisoning? Oh, that's irony!" she said, remembering her few cases of youki poisoning. She hadn't been around for the Kyubi attack, to her shame, but even if rare, lesser demons still existed and once in a while she found some poor sod who came too close to one and was poisoned by its youki. Jinchuuriki's chakra coils were usually protected by their own seals, but ordinary people weren't, and that's also what made demon containers so sought over as human weapons.

"Yes. Naruto told me the fox has only a few months left to live, considering the current decay rate."

Tsunade made some mental calculations. With the death of the fox, Naruto's chakra control would probably increase noticeably. Almost surely not enough to get immediate medical training, but enough to reduce the necessary control training from years to months. She was sorely tempted to lay claim on the blond...

"No, Tsunade, he will come with me for a few years. He will be safer in constant movement, because there is an organization of s-rank criminals who wants to collect the Biju. They call themselves the Akatsuki. And what's worse, they always travel in pairs."

Tsunade nodded. Unfortunately Jiraya was right, s-rank criminals made even Kabuto seem like a harmless farm-boy. Two of them at once would be very troublesome to fight even for her, considering her lost combat edge. She resolved to resume her training soon.

The aged Hokage then said: "I have already signed Jiraya's apprenticeship contract to Naruto, he just has to countersign it too and it will be official. Now let's come to the reason I asked Naruto-kun out, too. If he did not tell you, he is a master of the Shadow Clone technique and his considerable chakra reservoirs allows him to create very long-lived clones of himself, or in alternative hundreds of copies, at the same time. He also created an alter ego, that I officially approved after... 'she' demonstrated 'her' basic infiltration abilities, that actually remained in the village for the duration of his whole mission."

Jiraya nodded approvingly. Naruto had not told him that little fact, but his analytical mind quickly realized the logistic side of such an arrangement. With a stable clone in the village, he had a constant backup ready to call for aid should something really bad happen. It could literally save his life, one day, and it would be a good insurance against the Akatsuki. Even if he didn't know about them when he started this mission, it was a good idea, and with the knowledge that they wanted him taken alive until they could steal away the Kyubi he had just to create a single clone before being captured and he could organize an instant rescue mission.

"Her?" asked a surprised Tsunade, hoping that Jiraya hadn't contaminated Naruto, yet. He didn't behave like a pervert in the few days needed to get to Konoha, but just a few days didn't give her the full insight of his character.

"Oh, yes. He read in a library book that the best disguise in a familiar surrounding would be one that no one would associate with his original identity and he came up with a rather plain and shy-looking black-haired girl. I must admit I would have never recognized him in that disguise had I met her in a different circumstance. In fact, before she gave me a scroll detailing all she did, I actually believed her to be a genuine kunoichi, even if a possible enemy plant. And that is the point I want to make. He needs the right training, he has a true talent in the area and I want him to develop it."

Tsunade realized what the old goat was going to ask. "Yes, sensei. I'll ask her, but you owe me one. She won't be happy to be reminded of it."

"I realize it, Tsunade, but we must keep this fact confidential."

Tsunade nodded. She would need a lot of sake before even contemplating asking her...

"Oh, another thing, Jiraya. Naruto's 13th birthday is only a couple weeks away, naturally the very day of the Kyubi festival. Do you mind staying in the village until then?"

"Why, sensei? Planning a little go away party for the brat?" said Jiraya with a smirk.

"I... wanted to give him Kushina's scrolls. Now that he is a chunin I have no more reason to withhold them from him, especially now that many senior ninja recognized his bloodline during the arena fight. Unfortunately, that includes Orochimaru."

Jiraya looked pensive. "What kind of scrolls, sensei? And why nothing of Minato?"

Tsunade was curious, too.

"Kushina's scroll were remnants of a few water jutsu of her dead village, nothing to write home about, but it was mainly her diaries I wanted him to have. About Minato's scrolls, they were mostly destroyed during the attack. I salvaged what I could, but there were none of his original creations."

The two legendary ninja nodded, approvingly. It would be a very nice gesture to let poor Naruto to get to know her mother through her diary, and through her eyes, his father, too. It was, however, a true pity about the Hiraishin no Jutsu, Minato's masterpiece and now almost officially a lost technique.

"Yes, sensei. I think I'll wait."

The old Hokage nodded, and dismissed his two old students.

* * *

Sakura and Ino left the assembled fan club after the reunion, due to the imminent return of Sasuke from his mission.

"Did you notice anything strange, Ino?" asked Sakura, who felt a little tension in the air during the whole session.

"Yes, it was weird, but I cannot pinpoint what was wrong." lied Ino. She had a good guess what the problem was, but didn't want to trouble her rival/friend until she had confirmations from her sources.

Sakura then became thoughtful for a while, than said: "They did not even protest when Saki noticed neither of us had any rotation turn, and I was sure they would have.."

Ino sweated a little. So Sakura did notice a little bit of what was happening. To get her attention away from that topic she thought up a lie in the spur of the moment: "I had even a speech prepared to point out that as genin we have more duties and obligations to fulfill, amongst which orders about not spying on fellow shinobi."

Sakura looked at her strangely.

"Well, it _is_ true! Just I would not have specified that those orders were just from my father and only toward a particular chunin." said Ino, a little smug.

"That would have been low, Ino. Fortunately you didn't need it, but I would like to be consulted if you want to lie to them!"

"It wasn't technically a lie. It would have been just an omission of a few details..."

"Ino..."

"Yes, you are right, of course." said a defeated Ino. She, too, didn't want to lie to their rivals. It's not as if she actually had that speech ready, but her improvised lie made her look like a manipulative person. Well, she would survive it!

However she was getting worried. Sakura, accustomed as she was to direct insults didn't notice it, but she was used to how people gossip behind someone's back, and their behavior was reminiscent of a few times she heard someone talk behind _her_ back.

She didn't want to alarm Sakura, but Ino was beginning to think that reforming the fan club had not been such a good idea. As actual kunoichi they were much more likely to catch Sasuke-kun's attention and the other girls may have been jealous of the fact and begun to organize against the two of them. They may have put together their own worst enemy.

* * *

Naruto recovered from the headache about 20 minutes later. He was actually ecstatic by Akiko's studies, in particular their unique seal arrays, and he decided to try it immediately. Gathering the completed seal, he created a few clones, sent one to test the seal, and while he waited for the results, he resumed his unpacking. Better to risk a simple clone on an experimental seal.

The clone left the apartment with a Shunshin (he loved that jutsu!) and reached an empty training area. Akiko designed this seal to use the fake direction as one of the three projected in a standard illusory seal, which created a very simple illusory clone of the user just above the seal itself (an illusion even worse than the Clone Jutsu, because it was transparent and often flickered, but as a test was perfect since it was very simple). Instead of the standard length, height and width she tried to create an illusion with normal length and height, but using the fake direction to project the width. It had been incredibly hard to work out the seal array, as well as the relative math and it involved a lot of guesswork and artifices, since it was probably beyond his math abilities and knowledge.

Adding chakra to the seal, he admired the results. It was... weird.

The image appeared, completely flat for just a moment, then disappeared in a little smoke. He tried a few more times, with the same result. Either Akiko got something wrong, or the fake direction had different properties that did not allow that type of image projection.

Sighing, he realized he had to send Akiko again to hit the library books for a few more math books, because just doing this little modification had been incredibly hard and he needed true math to do the calculations.

He tried a last experiment. Creating a shadow clone, he ordered him to activate the seal array, while he simultaneously used Scan on the image, to get all the info he could before it self-destructed. The resulting information was very interesting: apparently the seal _did_ work, but the image could not sustain itself because by trying to shift the... "width" information into the fake-direction, resulted in a horrifying deformation even worse than his clone jutsu, but invisible to normal vision.

Sighing again, he resolved to analyze this data when he had a little more mathematical knowledge.

And he HATED math!

* * *

Another Naruto clone, who had just completed the mission report for the Hokage, received the memories of the seal testing clone. He, too, groaned at the idea of even more math to study, but he had a different thought.

The Life construct actually used the fake direction alongside the other three, so it had to have some significance, especially since it would be an unnecessary complication if it did not serve any useful purpose. So his ancestors knew at least a few of its properties.

Calling on a pyrefly to get his mother's attention, he asked: -_Mom, do you have any family scrolls about the properties of that weird fake direction that goes to the Farplane?_-

-_Y-yes, Naruto-chan, but it's a highly advanced one and require a very high math and geometry knowledge that you still don't possess. What brought this up?_-

-_While the Boss was busy training with Ero-sennin, Akiko experimented with a few simple seals to shift an e-rank image seal partially into the fake direction. Scanning the result told me that it came out horribly deformed, even if it looked perfectly flat to normal sight before it self-destructed._-

He could hear his mother sigh, then resumed speaking.

-_I'm going to do a little summary of that scroll, then, until you can actually read and understand it yourself. The 'fake direction' as you call it, your ancestors named the 'soul plane' even if technically it's not a plane, but a dimension just like the three basic ones, but that's getting far ahead of ourselves. What you must realize, is that jutsu that tamper with souls must access that dimension, too, because souls are... well, the souls are fully accessible only that way. Life must 'cast a net' to stop the soul from leaving the body and to reconnect it fully if it got close to leaving, so it requires that sort of construct. Anything less and it would just be useless._-

Naruto was still a bit confused, but he accepted the fact that he lacked the background information for a full understanding, for now.

-_Mom, but surely we are not the only clan that has jutsu dealing with souls, how did the others do without training to access the Farplane?_-

-_Remember that you can manipulate chakra with handseals, Naruto-chan. What you can naturally do thanks to that training, others can do with modified or even custom handseals that do that manipulation for them. Doing it without handseals makes it harder for others to even understand how we perform our jutsu._-

Naruto nodded, and Kushina slowly disappeared to return to the original.

Did their ancestors have troubles with copycat like the Uchiha Clan in the past? Or was it simply to keep allies from dying trying to emulate them without their bloodline?

In the end he dispersed himself to let the others know about his mother's information.

* * *

Sasuke didn't lose any time, as soon as he was free after the very short debriefing, he tracked down one of the Archivists and asked him anything he could find on Mitarashi Anko. Fortunately, that man was one of his many supporters, and complied swiftly to his demands. Nothing in her file could be used for blackmailing, since it was already all public knowledge, but it allowed him to know her past assignments, and track down her past teammates, colleagues, bosses, underlings, apprentices or students. Some of them would surely have some dirt they could share with him for the right price!

Sasuke smirked and he started tracking down her current boss, Ibiki Morino, the first examiner of the chunin exam...


	27. Anko's decision

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 27: Anko's decision

by Chronodt

Sasuke sat down before Ibiki, after having obtained an appointment with the head of the Torture and Interrogation division. Said Ibiki, however, was not alone, because he was in an open office with at least 3 other people. Apparently this area was dedicated to less sensitive paperwork and 'guests', he could say.

"So, Uchiha Sasuke, why did you ask to meet me? Do you see yourself in a career in my department?" he asked, with a little amusement. He already knew what the kid wanted, naturally, and the fact that he was close to realizing Anko's solution almost won him the betting pool. In fact a couple of the other workers in the room realized this, too and moaned in defeat. It was such a sweet sound...

"I need inside information on your subordinate, Mitarashi Anko."

Blunt and direct. This kid had either brass balls or the finesse of a sledgehammer.

"Why should I tell you, kid?" asked Ibiki, letting a slight annoyance filter into his tone.

"If I get her to train me, she won't have time to annoy you." said Sasuke, completely serious.

Damn if the brat didn't catch on Anko's personality well. At least the brat _had_ a valid point and didn't come here whining or trying to bribe him with something traceable and material like money. The brat had an ego problem and absolutely no respect for his superiors, but Anko may actually be good for him. He simply could not picture the brat after even just a single month with her without having that ego beaten away from him. That or a dead Uchiha, and both were acceptable in his book. As he was now, he was still a flight risk. Thinking about Kakashi's report, too, the brat got infected with the Snake Sannin's cursed seal, and Anko could teach him how to resist its influence.

No, he had no reason to refuse the brat, but he won't part with blackmail material on his staff because he just asked for it. He, however, could teach him something valuable instead, that would guide him to the right choice. And if his friends thought he was cheating on their bet, so be it. A ninja was more valuable than a few ryo, and the Uchiha needed someone like her as his teacher to become a loyal shinobi.

"So, in short, you want blackmail material on my subordinate, eh?" he said, with an evil grin. "But have you thought things throughly? Did you think what her reaction would be to blackmail? Consider her behavior to your previous approaches, what you gathered from your direct observations and build an initial profile to model her responses. After that use that model to picture her answer. This is all I will tell you." concluded Ibiki.

Sasuke was a little disappointed that Ibiki would not tell him anything about Anko, but his words made him think. He _was_ an expert in this particular field, so he began to apply his suggestions as he left the building. Returning to his apartment, he decided that physical training would be ideal to let his mind build that mental model Ibiki talked about and started doing a few hundred punches against a wooden post.

* * *

Naruto reached training ground 17, still used by Gai's team. He saw just Neiji at work. Disappointed in not seeing any of the other members of the team, Naruto was about to turn around, when the training boy turned toward him.

"Uzumaki-san." said Neiji, with a neutral tone. Naruto turned to him, reminding himself that he had already paid back the prick at the tournament, and he should let go of the anger...

"Hyuga-san." replied Naruto. "Do you know where Tenten is?" he asked.

"She has gone looking for Tsunade-sama, who apparently returned to the village just today. And... I .. wished to thank you, Uzumaki-san, for letting me see the error in my ways, and for changing Hinata for the better."

Naruto was now embarrassed. If Neiji changed to the point where he was glad that Hinata was a little happier, then he guessed he could forgive him, at least a bit. "I.. wish I could honestly say it was a pleasure, but I don't think it would be an appropriate answer..." he said, with a nervous laugh. Kushina, too, was laughing while Neiji's eye trembled a bit.

"I guess so, Uzumaki-san." he said, then returned to his training.

Since Tenten was away, he simply wandered a bit, then he decided to go to the hospital. Lee and Gai-sensei would surely be there, and with Tsunade back she would hopefully help the boy resume his ninja career. He also needed new weights and Gai had a _lot_ of spares, often even on his person. He still shivered thinking about the spare green spandex suit. Now that he thought about it, what excuse should he use to explain its destruction?

"Damn, I'm showing the first symptoms of Kakashi's Syndrome!" he jokingly said aloud.

-_Why Naruto-chan?_-

-_Well, I was just thinking up an excuse for Gai, to explain the lack of his training attire..._-

-_Ahh. Well, you can always blame it on Kabuto._-

-_Good idea, mom. I'll do it if he asks!_-

* * *

He actually saw Tsunade in the hospital while she was making a preliminary round of the hardest cases, but he didn't disturb her. Those people actually needed her more than him. Suddenly Naruto realized that if she was here, Tenten would be around, probably in Lee's room awaiting to talk to the legendary medic as she visited the boy. And he was right. Tenten rose from the chair as soon as someone entered the room and was a mix of disappointment and surprise when she realized he was not Tsunade. The bed was actually empty, and he bet Lee was out trying to train.... again.

"Naruto! You are back! Why didn't you tell me the person you had to bring back was Tsunade-sama?"

"I didn't know either, Tenten. Jiraya-sama told me about it only when we entered Tanzaku Town." He almost felt bad referring to the pervert as Jiraya-sama, but if he didn't, Tenten would start a tirade about respect, since she didn't know about the Super Pervert part of his character and she didn't believe him about it when he told her. Oh, she will learn, if he stays around too much.

"So did you meet her? Did you talk to her?" asked Tenten, a horrifying image of a fangirl superimposing her normal, calm and collected nature...

"Uh... yes, I _had_ to convince her to return back to Konoha, after all..."

Tenten's eyes brightening was just the first warning sign, and he was subjected to such an interrogation that he thought Ibiki should hire this girl to extract information. Fortunately Tenten's fanaticism only involved admiration and awe of her abilities and it didn't blind her to Tsunade's personal defects, and she had a lot of them, actually. But Tenten was happy to hear even about them, because she was finally getting to know her personal heroine as a person, not just as a myth. Oh, how he wished for Sakura-chan to take a few lessons from her!

The door opened again, and this time it was Lee, who was just returning to his room after another nurse brought him back, muttering about insane ninja.

"Lee, good to see you." said Naruto, while Tenten's started scolding him: "Lee! Where were you! Tsunade-sama is taking time just to visit patients! What if you weren't here when she came?"

Lee looked sheepish, but he sat down in the bed. After Tenten calmed down a little, they began updating each other on the events of Konoha. He naturally had to feign ignorance of quite a few things, while he, on his turn, recounted a few details of his Tsunade's hunt, leaving outside the Akatsuki, naturally, and giving as little details as he could about the techniques he was learning as well. He learned of Neiji change of heart, that apparently became apparent sometimes before his lessons with Tenten, of Lee's twice daily escapes to train and of Tenten herself contemplating joining the med-nin training to add a little more variety to her arsenal, especially considering the fact she had 2 fitness nuts in her team and not a thimble of common sense between the two of them. They even came up with a schedule to train each other in seals and in the glaive, after training with their respective team. He left as soon as Tsunade actually approached so to not get in the way in the small room and left to search for Gai-sensei. He found him talking with Kakashi-sensei near an unused training ground.

"Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei, I found you!" said Naruto, coming near the two elite jonin.

"What happened, Naruto?" asked Kakashi.

"Tsunade-sama was about to visit Lee in the hospital when I left..."

Gai's eyes brightened, and began his usual tirade about youth that Naruto promptly tuned out, trying to also avoid Kakashi's irritated glare who was telling him 'Why didn't you wait until I left?'

Gai departed within a minute in his rant, apparently cut short by his wish to know if Tsunade could actually help his prized student, and both Kakashi and Naruto were infinitely relieved.  
"Well, Kakashi-sensei, will I see you tomorrow at the usual time?" asked Naruto, then he added in a lower voice: "I forgot to ask Gai-sensei for a few more weights, too..."

Kakashi nodded, but Naruto didn't miss his eyes wandering around his limbs, to check how much weight he was carrying, before poofing away in a Shunshin. Looking around, since he already was near an empty training ground, he decided to make use of it performing a few katas, both armed and unarmed, until dinnertime.

* * *

Chouji was worried about Ino. Asuma-sensei invited them again at his favorite barbecue restaurant, but she was absentmindedly eating a lot more than she usually did, and without even realizing it. Not that he was worried about her eating too much, that girl ate way too little for a practicing kunoichi to be healthy, but it was clear that she was worried sick about something. He noticed that both his other teammate and his sensei were as worried as him.

"Ino, what happened to you?" asked Asuma, forgoing smoking, for once. He was actually glad for it, cigarette smoke altered the meat's flavor and not for the better.

Ino looked up for a moment, than hastily said: "It's nothing, sensei... just... "

"Just...?" baited Asuma.

"Nothing!" she said, than she clamped shut her mouth.

Chouji sighed, and he heard Shikamaru again murmuring something about 'troublesome blonds'. At least today Ino ate enough, even if it meant less food for them, but he could always get something else later. Ino, instead, would never eat anything else at home. He sometimes worried about her, but he could not force her to eat more. He still shivered thinking back to the last time he tried, that tongue-lashing about her figure and Sasuke-kun (nothing else remained of it) had been extremely frustrating and he resolved to not bother himself again with it.

* * *

Naruto awoke early and seeded the town with about a hundred clones, just like 'old times'. His Akiko alter ego left in the village feared a sudden return of malignant rumors as soon as he came back, so as a precaution he provided all the needed workforce. It wasn't as if creating a hundred clones tired him too much. Give him a few hours and he would be fresh as a rose again and with his discovery that opening the Gates would increase the lifespan of a clone, his mass produced clones could last all day even if created them in the hundreds, despite having relatively little chakra.

Reaching their training ground, he met Sakura and Sasuke for the first time in a couple of weeks. As soon as he arrived, they prepared to spar. After all, Kakashi sensei would be fashionably late, as usual, and it wouldn't do to lose training time to wait for his whims. As usual, since he had the most aggression to vent, Sasuke charged him up. Because he was the best taijutsu user they decided, when the leftover clone was still 'alive', that the next time they would get together in the mornings like this, they would spar 2 against 1, with the 1 initially being Sasuke, naturally. They would later rotate, using Haste on the alone member if it wasn't Sasuke, and Slowing the two when both of the boys were against Sakura. It made an efficient way to increase all their taijutsu skills, even with their different skill and strength level. After two hours of sparring, resting and light sparring again, Kakashi-sensei finally deigned to show himself. He wanted to wait a little bit before giving him 'the book'; it would be best to give it to him just before he left, so he had a whole night to get over whatever reaction he had to it and the three of them could have a likewise whole night to laugh about it. Well, at least Sakura and himself, Sasuke would at most smirk.

Kakashi immediately began evaluating his current proficiency level, before they went for their respective missions. Sakura left to reach team 8 to do a d-rank mission while Sasuke and he went to the tower to do their first day of their administrative duties. Sasuke went to the library while Naruto was assigned to the Archives. The Hokage, after his due debriefing on his c-rank mission, simply said that since he knew the area well, by now, he should learn how to work responsibly in it. Well, at least now he had an official excuse for knowing where he could find the books he was looking for, since their locations were filed there, but he could not get out of his mind that it was just another punishment for his recklessness against Kabuto.

Once their shift ended, Kakashi resumed their training with teamwork drills, tactics, strategy and simulated missions. Naruto was tempted to ask for a bit more of stealth training, he would need it to get those books, but he resolved to wait a bit. Kakashi sensei would surely touch the subject soon, because neither his nor Sasuke's stealth were up to chunin level, and Sakura's was average even for a genin. In the month Ebisu trained her, she had more glaring holes in her physical education, stealth could wait until her official sensei decided to help her.

Just before they separated, Naruto pulled out 'the book', wrapped in a gift package. Just like the one left to the Hokage, it had a bookmark in the right page. He could almost feel Sakura's mirth, and he almost believed that Sasuke, too, was anticipating their sensei's reaction.

Kakashi recognized the looks in his students' faces, but he resolved to get this over with. Opening the package, he realized it was a simple medical handbook. He examined it for traps or seals, but found none. The bookmark also did not have any seals on it, so it was safe. Opening at the marked page, he saw them both... the bookmark and the description. Very original, but now...

"Well, now I have an official medical excuse for being late. Thank you very much!" he said, with an eye-smile. There was nothing funnier than reverse a prank in such a simple way. Their faces also told him that they didn't expect anything close to this reaction. Good. It was a touching thing, however that they went all the way to create a fake book just to do a prank. Naturally this idea had Naruto's fingerprints all over it, but the other two knew about it and it implied a level of teamwork he didn't believe possible from them a few month ago. Poofing away in a Shunshin, he hurried home to place the book amongst his precious 'special' literature, as the first gift he received from his team it deserved that special place in his bookshelf.

* * *

Sasuke was on his way to the dango shop, his mind in turmoil. Ibiki was right, building a mental model of Anko's character helped him reach a conclusion. If he proceeded with his plan and blackmailed her, she would retaliate in a way many times more vicious than whatever he used. That, and he would destroy any will she had to train him in everything she knew, ruining his primary goal for becoming her apprentice.

He just had to swallow his pride.

It wasn't an easy thing to do for him, but he already did once, when he asked the dobe to relay what Sakura told him about tree-climbing, and Anko was hundred of times worthier of his respect than what the dobe was back then. He realized that awakening his bloodline had noticeably bloated his pride to the point of a slight arrogance that blinded him to the means needed to fulfill his goal. Not only that, he was about to choose a method that would have destroyed that goal as well!

Looking at the distant figure of Mitarashi Anko gleefully eating dango, he hardened his resolve and went to her table. He 'invited himself' to a seat before her and waited in silence for a few minutes, trying to find the words to end this humiliation as soon as he could.

"Mitarashi-san.... I … I...... Can I be your apprentice, Mitarashi-san?" asked Sasuke, rushing the last phrase as if speaking it for long could damage his lungs or throat.

"It was long past time, brat, but I see you managed it. Good work. Consider yourself my apprentice starting tomorrow, but to make it official I will need to file a bit of paperwork and the Hokage's signature. But be warned, brat. I won't coddle you. My training will be brutal and bloodthirsty. Every time I hear a complaint, I will hurt you more. Every time I feel you are not giving me your best, I will sic a snake up your ass. Do you understand?"

Sasuke didn't trust his voice, and simply nodded. He was not afraid of hard work.

"Good. Tomorrow, after your team training and each day after that, you will meet me at the Forest of Death, the gate nearest the village unless I say otherwise. Probably your official apprenticeship will be approved only after the Festival on the 10th, until then you will still be required to go with team 7."

After that, Anko disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke's head was reeling, but he was glad he actually made that step. Anko.... sensei he guessed didn't even rub his humiliation in his face, so it was another test that he finally managed to pass. He was actually glad to have followed Ibiki's suggestion...

* * *

Akiko was satisfied. Naruto had been in the village for 24 hours and no new nasty rumor emerged, yet. Maybe Hokage-sama really managed to do something about it. Since she had time to spare, she decided to direct a few of her spy-clones to discreetly check a couple locations of suspected ANBU libraries. Suspected because they were obviously not explicitly indicated as such in the Archives, but using chunin-level codes and hidden text clues she managed to put together at least 10 suspicious sites. She had to be careful, because the Hokage could punish her severely if he ever got wind of it, and that was the reason he told the clones that discretion was of the paramount importance. Not that they didn't understand it, after all they were all copies of the same mind!

She also wondered how often those codes were changed, because people like Kabuto could get easily their dirty hands on them and compromise middle-level security areas like those she was currently trying to find. She just hoped it was not a trap to ferret out spies, but the security codes she received together with the other new chunin were freshly changed after the invasion, so there was little risk about it, but she had to be cautious nonetheless.

Dividing her workforce accordingly, she started making strange markings on a map she bought a few hours ago.

* * *

After their training was done, each of the members of team 7 went into their own separate way. Naruto created a clone and sent it to the training ground 17, where Tenten was waiting for him to do her seals training. Tomorrow he would also resume his glaive lessons and would go personally.

The true Naruto instead reached team 8's training ground because his mother insisted that he greet Hinata personally, to not let her motivation lapse. He still was nervous, especially because he didn't want to make Hinata unhappy to the level of suicide like his mother said would be possible if he said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Avoiding her would probably be even worse, though, because she was so insecure that if she learned of his return and he didn't visit she would imagine all sort of things where he rejected her as a friend, returning to those aforementioned consequences.

Girls were weird, no doubt about it, but Hinata-chan more than everyone he knew.

He saw Hinata sparring with Kiba, while Kurenai-sensei and Shino observed from the side. Hinata was much better than the last time he saw her, but still she couldn't beat the dog boy, even if Akamaru was on the sideline, apparently encouraging Hinata rather than his partner, to his dismay.

Apparently all of them noticed his approach, but none reacted, until Kiba managed to hit Hinata with a sweep kick and sent her on the ground.

"It's enough for today" said Kurenai-sensei. "I'll see you tomorrow." than she left the training ground simply walking away.

"Hello guys." said Naruto, in his usual enthusiastic manner. The others also replied as usual, with a nod (Shino), blushing (Hinata), a bark (Akamaru) and a boisterous "Heya!" (Kiba)

"So..Naruto-kun, how was your mission?" asked Hinata. She didn't even stutter, so she really got better!

"It was great, but I also got attacked by Kabuto, do you remember him? He was wearing a sound headband and Jiraya-sensei told me he was really Orochimaru's second in command!"

Their reactions were predictable, really. Kiba yelled obscenities, surprised by his treachery, Hinata grew silent but Shino... didn't even flick his eyebrows. "_So he already knew, eh?_"

Hinata too, noticed this. "Shino-kun, did you already know this?" she asked.

"I received my bingo book as soon as I was assigned my first patrol mission. He was clearly stated as an a-rank Sound ninja, wanted for espionage and assassination of several Konoha citizen and ninja alike, and naturally his participation in the invasion. Medic-nin and ninjutsu specialist, trained by both our own staff and the traitor and s-rank missing-nin Orochimaru."

"You actually already _memorized_ it?" asked a surprised Kiba. Hinata and Naruto, too, were surprised.

"You don't have time to consult it in the middle of a battle. Naturally I memorized it." he said in a deadpan voice, as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

Naruto actually felt a little shame about it, because even if he hadn't received it yet, he hadn't even _considered_ memorizing it. At most he would have flipped its pages and looked if someone looked interesting enough to remember...

"Now I must go. Uzumaki-san..." said Shino, leaving the training ground.

After a bit of barking from Akamaru, Kiba said. "Akamaru needs to be home, too, even if he refuses to tell me why. See you sometimes, Naruto!"

Naruto had the impression that Shino and Akamaru wanted him to be alone with Hinata. Why?

"Naruto-kun, I... I have to thank you for last week, for inviting me to dinner and for greeting us even if you didn't have time..." said Hinata, with a very red face. So this was why, she wanted to thank him but she was too nervous to do it before other people.

"It was nothing, Hinata-chan, I was glad to be able to do it!" he said, trying to not say anything hurtful to the girl.

Hinata blushed, bowed deeply and then fled, completely red-faced.

Naruto was left alone, in the training ground, still baffled by her strange behavior....


	28. Troubled kunoichi

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 28: Troubled kunoichi

by Chronodt

Tsunade drank again, just a little tipsy from the few little sake bottles before her. The bar she and Shizune were currently in was rather near the hospital, since the medic wanted to get plastered a bit after a day of hard work. And she still needed a few more bottles to gather up the courage to ask her companion the favor the Hokage wanted from her. Shizune, before becoming a medic-nin had been trained as an infiltrator, actually she was considered a prodigy in the field, but...

She had too many bad memories of that period, in particular the incident who forced her to quit and resume her studies as medic ninja. Having seen civilian and children tortured, raped and killed while she could do nothing to help to maintain her cover had killed her willingness to perform such missions. Luckily, she was as gifted as a medic so her change of career wasn't questioned by the higher-up. In a war-torn era, a trained medic specialist was worth more than a traumatized infiltrator, even if gifted.

Resolving to speak to Shizune the next day, Tsunade drank just a bit more...

* * *

Naruto walked to the door, where someone just knocked a few instants ago. Opening it, he saw Sakura, a little distressed about something, and apparently she didn't even know where to start.

"Come in, Sakura-chan." he said, ordering the couple clones who were marking the map to free the table (and naturally hide everything that shouldn't be there)

"Tea?" one of the clones offered. Naruto wasn't a tea person, but his mother insisted that he kept at least some of it around for guests.

"No, thank you, Naruto. I... I don't even know why I came here to begin with..."

Naruto's clone nodded and dispersed, along all the others in the room, leaving just the original with Sakura.

"Could it be related to the rumor that is going around about you, Ino and the fan club?" asked Naruto, guessing where the problem was.

"So you have heard about it, too." she said. "It should have been a way to keep Anko away from Sasuke-kun, but all the girls got together against us! And what's worse Sasuke-kun today actually sat with her in a restaurant! What can I do, Naruto?"

Naruto actually felt a little irritated. If he still harbored that crush for Sakura-chan this 'confession' about her jealousy would have either ripped his heart apart or have him trying (unsuccessfully) to 'console' Sakura offering himself as an alternative. The latter would probably have led to a painful concussion. Maybe it was because he let go of her that Sakura-chan now felt safe confiding with him. And Sakura-chan didn't even realize Sasuke's true objective with the Scary Snake Lady.

He had no true experience in counseling people, even less girls. Hinata-chan had been a complete accident, what could he do?

-_What do I say, mom?_-

-_I think you'd better tell her what Sasuke is really doing, it will lighten her load, at least a little. She will probably blame herself for being stupid for recreating the fan club, but it will be a useful lesson, in the end._-

"Sakura-chan, do you even know what Sasuke wants from her?" asked Naruto.

Sakura nodded. Naruto almost laughed out loud. "_So, she thinks she knows, eh?_"

"Then why are you stopping him from trying to become her apprentice? It's not like he is 'romantically' interested in her, or the other way around, after all..." he said, as if he didn't know Sakura-chan completely misunderstood both of their motives. And her reaction was really comical, her eyes bulged out, completely shocked.

"A-are you sure? How can it be? He went to her and was completely embarrassed!" asked an incredulous Sakura.

"Anko is a special jonin, Sakura. She knows Sasuke's worst defect, and that is his overwhelming ego and arrogance. After what I heard of his attempts to impress her, I say that the one thing she really wanted him to do was to ask her nicely, something Sasuke would find very hard to do. I'm not surprised it took him so long to actually sit down and do it. The scene you just saw today, was Sasuke swallowing his pride and … well, beg is a strong word for what he actually did, but he asked her to become her student, and she accepted. That's all there was to it."

Sakura remained open-mouthed for a while, then she asked: "How do you know about all this?" her tone implied that she still didn't believe what he told her fully.

"Ever since I heard a few nasty rumors about how I 'cheated' in my victory against Neiji, I discreetly kept my ear to the ground in the gossip grapevine. From what I heard, Sasuke has tried for a few weeks to gain her favor. He tried ambushes and outright attacks to show her his ninja abilities, but she refused every time. Every ninja and most _adult_ civilians understood almost immediately what Sasuke was trying to do, but you and your fan club are the first and probably only ones to even hint a romantic attachment between the two of them. Anko simply isn't interested in boys our age and Sasuke is only interested in her strength and what she can teach him."

Sakura looked like she just swallowed Gamakichi while he was struggling.

"Is that the problem? The fact that your friends realized that Sasuke wasn't interested in her and gave up the observation?"

Sakura shook her head, letting out a few tears. "No. I... We..."

Sakura didn't know how to continue. Naruto's conclusions made too much sense, and she couldn't believe she jumped to that conclusion without even considering the facts. Her love almost literally blinded her to what was transpiring before her eyes, and completely overreacted! And now she was stuck in a mess of her own making!

She had to talk to Ino, as soon as possible.

"T-thank you, Naruto. I must go to Ino, but you have been a great help." and she hurried away, out of the door without even waiting for his reply.  
"It... was nothing, Sakura-chan..." he said to her empty seat.

Girls were truly weird.

* * *

The Hyuga residence was quiet during the night, but even so, guards from the branch family were outside, patrolling the interior of the complex. Inside the main family mansion, three men, aged ex-shinobi, contemplated a few photos and a report.  
"An a-rank shinobi? How could he survive?" murmured the first, examining Kabuto's picture, extracted from the Bingo Book, as the most recent in their possession.

"Apparently Kabuto was in a hurry to escape, Jiraya was on his trail and had a comatose Tsunade to take away. Not ideal conditions to fight. However, the fact that he forced such an opponent to stand and fight him until he had to flee was incredible. Not that we truly wanted his death, but if he did die I wouldn't have lamented his departure."

The third nodded. "He is about to leave for a few years as the apprentice of the Toad Hermit, but my sources weren't able to determine when. It's likely that it will happen soon, however. Probably no later than the Festival, but after his traditional chunin missions. Our attempt to discredit him weren't as successful as we hoped and his status as Jiraya's apprentice is starting to circulate. It won't be possible to do a further public opinion attack of that level. We have to either step it up and risk exposure, or change our approach."

"We cannot risk his death in Konoha." Stated the second. "We have no knowledge of the Fourth's seal to risk it. If he feels betrayed while he is dying we have no certainties that he won't be able to free the Kyubi in retaliation. The only thing we can do is trying to frame him and get him exiled."

The first frowned. "Isn't that a bit too much just for that level of humiliation? All of us know that the only reason he beat the Kaiten was because of that summon. All his other tactics were already documented in our histories, and if Neiji had been allowed to consult them, the boy wouldn't have lost that badly."

The third frowned. "We won't allow branch members access to our libraries, even if they are gifted. I thought this point was clear already!"

The second nodded, and the first, too, reluctantly agreed.

After a silent minute, the first spoke up again: "We cannot frame him before the Hokage, that would be surely excessive, but we can frame him to the public. He has been quite silent recently in his pranking ways, hasn't he?"

The other two nodded.

"We will organize an outrageous prank the very day of the Festival, a prank that will inflame the fury of the villagers against its perpetrator. In his former style, so that no one would believe his innocence when he will declare himself as such."

"Yes, it is a fitting punishment." declared the third.

"I concur." said the second, too.

"So be it." said the first, standing up and leaving the room in silence, followed by the other two.

* * *

Ino yawned, sitting in her bed. Sakura, before her, was chatting animately about all her fears and insecurities, and what was even more shocking, about Naruto's revelations about Sasuke's behavior. Even if it was rather late, she could not stop thinking about how stupid they have been in both analyzing the situation and in employing the right tool to reach their objectives.

In summary, they failed as kunoichi, blinded by their crushes on the boy.

This would not do.

They spent all the night analyzing facts, observations and speculations, discarding false conjectures and using facts to create various scenario, but Naruto's hypothesis held true, and was, in fact, the most probable thing that truly happened, if they only did this beforehand!

"So, Sasuke-kun managed to get himself an apprenticeship, in the end." said Ino, bleary-eyed and tired, as she looked at the lightening pre-dawn morning sky.

"I'm pretty sure Naruto did, too, with Jiraya-sama." said Sakura.

"You know, right, that this will mean that for a few years they will be mostly training singularly, until their masters deem them ready?"

"Should I get an apprenticeship, too?" asked Sakura, worried. "I had some thought about getting medical training. It wouldn't be an apprenticeship, but it would be a perfect way of using my strengths."

"Why not both? You can ask for an internship/apprenticeship with a medic-nin. Heck, if your chakra control is as good as you say it is, you may even nail Tsunade-sama herself!" she said, jokingly. Sakura didn't seem to completely discount that possibility, but then she shook her head. "I don't know if I would ever have the courage to present myself to her and ask to be her apprentice. I'm not Naruto, you know!" she said with a smile.

"Oh, yes, mister 'I will be Hokage' and 'I'm awesome' would have no trouble going there and bugging her until she caved." she said with a smile. "Maybe it's the way he convinced her to return, he annoyed her until she agreed, just to keep him quiet!"

Sakura and Ino laughed, silently to not disturb Ino's sleeping family, but both of them could easily picture the scene Ino just described.

Sakura looked out again. She really missed her friendship with Ino. Why had she broken it just for a boy? Well, maybe not 'just' a boy, but for someone who doesn't even look at her (or Ino, or any other girl for that matter) with interest? It was clear from her tentative medical studies that boys developed interest in girls later than the girls themselves were interested in boys, and Sasuke was probably still in his 'girls are icky' phase. At least she hoped it was so.

"Well, it's time to 'wake up', I guess." said Ino, with a grimace. "You up for breakfast?"

Sakura nodded, "Sure!"

* * *

Team 7's morning assembly went with a strange difference. Sasuke was clearly satisfied, even in a good mood, while Sakura was still a bit depressed, even if not as much as when she was at Naruto's apartment. Naruto even managed to get Kakashi sensei to instruct them a bit more in subterfuge battle tactics, otherwise known as making ambushes, that, even if it was not the entering and sneaking in instruction that he needed, it was close enough to surveillance that he could easily adapt those teachings to keep under control a building, once he identified the correct one. After another shift at the Archives he went looking for the last of his ninja friends, team 10 Unfortunately he wasn't able to locate them. Apparently they finished their training much earlier than him and each of them already went home. A pity, that.

In the end, he simply shrugged and left to training ground 17, where he would receive Tenten's glaive lessons.

* * *

Orochimaru entered the laboratory, seeing Kabuto working at his desk. He was actually looking in a big medical volume on degenerative diseases and comparing charts and graphs with what he had pinned on the wall.

"Orochimaru-sama, I have not very good news, I'm sorry to say it. The White Chakra amount on that blood sample was so small that it barely gave him 2 weeks more to live, and that because we were lucky. I have reduced the origin from millions to less than a dozen thousands genetic markers that possibly caused his disease, but it's not enough. I'm afraid that we cannot afford to select the perfect mother for your future body, Orochimaru-sama. We only have time to do a carpet insemination and cull out the diseased children once they have been born, regardless of their strength potential."

Orochimaru sneered, but he knew this solution was preferable to the oblivion of Kimimaro's bloodline.

"Do it. And send the Sound Four to get me Sasuke-kun, as we planned last month. If I cannot use the Kaguya, at least I will have the sharingan for my next body."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

* * *

Tsunade looked at Shizune, and remembered her half-drunk resolve to tell her apprentice of the Hokage's request today. She was almost ready to procrastinate again, but she decided that she would not fail sensei again.

"Shizune, I have to talk to you, here, in private." she said to her apprentice, while they were decorating Tsunade's new office.

Shizune closed the door, and waited for her mentor to start. It looked as if she was trying to force herself to speak.

"I received a request, from the Hokage, a request for you, specifically." she started. "Naruto needs... a specialized instructor in a field you were very proficient in..."

Shizune blanched.

"Yes, the Hokage wants you to train Naruto as an infiltrator. And before you protest, I'll tell you that he created an alternate identity as a _kunoichi_ that is currently living in the village, probably even right now, using shadow clones and Henge..."

"T-Tsunade-sama.... I..." Shizune gulped, and then she stopped. She thought for a moment how Tsunade-sama was able to get past her phobia thanks to Naruto-kun. Could they help each other? And it wasn't as if she was asked to do the job herself, or even a true girl, for that matter. Not that she would wish some of the things she saw in that branch of ninja assignment to anyone, but...

"Shizune, I know that it must be h-"

"I accept, Tsunade-sama!"

"-ard, but.... uh?"

Tsunade was surprised, she didn't expect that Shizune would accept immediately, and for a moment she was off-balance.

"Yes, I accept, Tsunade-sama. It will be hard, but as long as I only have to teach I can do it." and under her voice, barely audible, she added: "And maybe I can put all of that horrible experience behind me, once I'm done."

"Thank you, Shizune. I will inform the Hokage."

* * *

A Naruto's clone yelled in joy, in the woods beside Konoha, congratulated by the other ones present for completing their first successful Life Jutsu. It took him 10 minutes to do it, way more than what was tolerable to get the desired results, but it was a perfect construct. Their hunting success improved to the point that they did not need more than a couple traps to keep enough birds around. Once they could successfully revive a bird, he would only practice once on each of them. He didn't have the heart to kill, revive, kill and then revive again the same bird and he was tired of eating them. He actually wanted a bit of ramen, he hadn't yet had a single cup since he left the village!

He resumed his training, realizing the first success was right around the third week mark just like he guessed. Now he had to reliably replicate the feat, hasten it significantly, and he was finally done with this jutsu. Hopefully he would never _need_ to use it, but it was better to be prepared for any eventuality.

Taking hold of another bird, the clone proceeded to kill it and try to perfectly craft the Life construct again.

* * *

Akiko groaned, burying her head in another math book. She was right, math even just below the required level was horrible, a torture device created by enemy nin to frustrate her. She really had to rest her brain from that mental workout, while her clones took notes about 9 of the 10 buildings. One had already been discarded, because it was used by the Equipment & Supply division, which took care to supply civilian police in the surrounding villages and guardhouses scattered in the Land of Fire.

Catching a sudden thought, looking at the sunlight entering from a window, she absentmindedly examined a few grain of dust dancing in the air, thinking back to the sand girl, Temari and her battle fan. Back then she dismissed the use of a battle fan because it would be hard to find the relative techniques in Konoha, but it would be a possible weapon of choice for Akiko. Naruto had his Summoning Glaive, and her readings told her their wind natured chakra could sharpen bladed weapons immensely. However she could not use it, unless it was an emergency, and because of it she needed a personal style, different from Naruto if she was ever sent in a mission or her cover would never hold. As a wind user and a kunoichi, a fan, specially just a hand-held one, would be completely inconspicuous in the hands of a traditionally dressed girl, with a kimono and everything and could be used to power wind jutsu. Good quality kimonos were rather expensive, but Naruto's recent winnings would allow her to buy a few mid-high quality ones. She would naturally wait to see whatever her infiltration instructor wanted her to wear, though, before buying things. And tomorrow Naruto will be assigned his first patrol mission, and that would mean again a manpower and chakra shortage, leaving her to study as the only possible pastime. Life just wasn't fair sometimes...

* * *

Anko looked at Sasuke, sharpening a few kunai before the gate to training area 44, naturally her favorite Forest of Death.

"Alright, brat. I've already seen what you can do due to those silly ambushes, so I'm going right to the juicy part. You are going in there, and I'll give you five minutes before I come for you. You are allowed any trick you can imagine, but you must reach the Tower whole and before sundown. Since this is our first time, I will just use kunai." she showed him her just sharpened kunai with a mad glint in her eyes and started caressing it like it was her baby. "Oh, and please don't die, I don't want to fill anymore training death reports, they are annoying..." she said with a purr.

Sasuke contemplated his sanity when he decided to make her his teacher, but if she made him stronger than his brother, it would be worth every inconvenience or madness.

"Ok, brat, remember that once the sun is completely down, the exercise is over. If you don't reach the tower, you'll run 3 times around the whole forest before going to bed, though."

Sasuke groaned; he remembered the Forest of Death being somewhat large and having to run around it it would mean a very long trek. He hoped he had time to sleep tonight.

"Ok, brat, you can go." she said, suddenly.

Sasuke didn't wait a second and launched himself in the forest, trying to go for speed. None of his traps ever got her, so he didn't bother to lay too many of them, just the few needed to force her to pay attention to her surroundings and hopefully delay her. It was at times like these that he envied Naruto's chakra capacity because if he had it he could have left a couple shadow clones to lay traps in his trail. He didn't know any other clone jutsu except the useless academy one and he resolved to ask Kakashi sensei for one, hopefully a clone type smart enough to do the job and without the horrific drain of the Shadow ones. Considering the terrain, an Earth Clone should be perfect, even if he had no affinity for earth jutsu. He could even pass it off as a jutsu for Sakura and copy it for himself at the same time. Dodging a kunai, he realized that, unfortunately, Anko already caught up with him. And he barely ran halfway to the tower! Gritting his teeth, he prepared himself to resist her attacks while still advancing to his objective...


	29. Training clubs

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 29: Training clubs

by Chronodt

Naruto stood in the Hokage's office, where he was briefed about the patrol route he and his teammates would be following. He barely knew his squad, but he saw the supervisor during the battle at the arena. He was Yamashiro Aoba, special jonin and just looked like an ordinary guy you can meet in a pub or with a girl. He had black glasses, jonin vest and a stereotypical Konoha ninja wear. His Scan told him that he was an expert of fire jutsu and knew a sort of distraction technique with fake crows, similar to a mass clone technique. His team nominal leader was Gorai Tamami, a 19-year old dark-haired boy, a weapon specialist (with swords and kunai) who also had a bit of ability in water jutsu. He had been a chunin since he was 14. The last member of the team was Karemi Inuzuka, a 20 years old kunoichi and her dog companion Shiromi, chunin for 3 years, naturally expert tracker, Inuzuka family style taijutsu/ninjutsu and an unused fire elemental affinity. Naruto thought that sometimes having a clan wasn't that great a thing, if it made its members neglect classical ninjutsu.

Their patrol area was the route to Wave. The Hokage sure wanted to embarrass him, evidently, why else would he assign him to the one place where he was considered a national hero?

He prepared his pack, adding the Bingo Book he received together with his assignment, but he changed his mind, and sealed it in a quick-grab scroll in his flak vest. Shino was right, he should memorize it and he would use his spare time during the mission to do so or, even better, give that task to a clone.

-_Naruto-chan, there is another thing you can do in Wave, since it is near the ocean. When you are there, you should contact Leviathan and ask him about his challenge._-

-_Will I have the time to do it, mom?_-

-_Yes, don't worry. The patrol route to Wave is three day to reach the bridge, that is now the landmark of the border between Wave and Fire, one day to resupply and another three to come back. Since there are two patrols in each major route at every time, you don't have to worry too much about using your day off to summon the Guardian._-

Naruto nodded, glad to have packed a few extra soldier pills. He had no idea what sort of challenge would a Guardian ask of him, so it was better to be prepared.

* * *

Akiko hummed to herself while she went shopping. Just like last time, the Boss created her at his full power, and Hokage-sama told her that Shizune accepted her as an infiltration student. Akiko was surprised by the revelation, but was actually happy to be trained by someone she knew and trusted. Having managed to keep Tsunade in line all those years, she was clearly deserving of every praise the Hokage gave about her abilities, and she clearly couldn't wait until this afternoon, when she could start her formal training, naturally after Shizune's hospital shift.

Rumor-wise her tormentors were eerily quiet, maybe too much so, but with her workforce cut down and having passed most of the work to someone chosen by the Hokage (still unknown to her), she decided it was time to relax a bit. Maybe she could read some ninja novel to get some inspiration for some new technique, or simply look for a hobby, or just expand her little plants in her apartment into a true gardening hobby. She would surely never lack viable hands to care for them, even if the Boss was required outside the village, after all!

Gardening and plants also gave way to poison, since many of them were derived from plants, her natural healing abilities and the Esuna no Jutsu would help against accidental poisonings.

Leaving her groceries at home, she left for the library to get a ninja novel, to follow up on the previous thought. Ero-sennin and Shizune would surely help her if she somehow needed a little more poison training.

* * *

Sakura groaned and dried up her forehead from all the sweat coming down on her eyes. Kakashi sensei was a true taskmaster when she got one-on-one instruction. With Naruto away and Sasuke on a full-day training session with Anko-san, Kakashi-sensei was free to concentrate all his sadism on her person.

"Good, Sakura-chan, your physical abilities are steadily improving, I see you followed perfectly my schedule."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei."

"A few more months of this and your stamina will reach Sasuke's level when he left the Academy."

Sakura's breathing slowly descended from heaving and panting to 'just' hard breathing. When she was sure she could complete a whole phrase without gasping, she asked: "Kakashi-sensei, should I get an internship in the new medical program Tsunade-sama is creating?"

Kakashi nodded immediately: "I was actually thinking about it, Sakura-chan. Your chakra control is almost perfect and that's the hardest requirement. You have a good theoretical preparation and learn academic material very easily, another requirement, and as I said a few weeks ago, your body structure is good for medical taijutsu. If you wish to join, you have my recommendation and blessing. But then, I will be probably short of a team after the Festival in any case."

"What do you mean, sensei?"

"Naruto will actually leave the village with Jiraya-sama, and Anko will train Sasuke exclusively for at least a few months, if not years. With just a single member, and a genin at that, team 7 will be disbanded and you will be placed in the reserve corps, unless you join the medical teams or another specialized division, that as you are now, don't have the qualifications to join."

"Qualifications?" asked a surprised Sakura.

"ANBU, hunter-nin, Torture & interrogations and many others sometimes recruit even genin out of their teams in cases such as yours, when your other teammates receive apprentice-level single instruction or worse, are dead. This, however, happens only if you have the experience or an extraordinary already established ability pertinent to their particular field. For example if you were Ino, the Torture & interrogation division may have recruited you due to the Yamanaka's famous family mind jutsu, but only if you had a bit more experience than a single mission higher than d-rank. They would probably let you be in the reserve corps for a year or two and if you didn't get into a team or become a chunin by then they would approach to recruit and train you even further."

"But since I have no abilities that a specialized division needs..." began Sakura.

"Yes, they won't even think about making an offer to you. The new medical program, instead, would give you the abilities to get into the medic-nin corps. Naturally you will still be assigned a squad and go in a few missions once in a while, just like ordinary ninja, but instead of guard duties, when you reach chunin, you will get hospital shifts and such. So, instead of dull baby sitting, you'll get stuck taking care of perverted drooling old men..."

"Are you trying to encourage or discourage me?" asked Sakura, with a smile.

"I'm trying to give you options, Sakura-chan." he replied with a creepy eye-smile.

* * *

Ino walked furiously in circles in her room, while Sakura sat in the bed, trying to understand her ramblings. Apparently her training wasn't as fruitful as hers.

"... that lazy ass should shove his 'troublesome'..." mumbled Ino, in a not-so-quiet voice. Her irritation toward her teammates was evident, but Sakura still hadn't had the courage to ask what the problem was with her team.

After another fifteen minutes rant, Ino finally calmed down, and somehow realized Sakura was still in her room.

"Oh, sorry, Sakura. I was so completely pissed with my team, that I _had_ to rant to someone, or I would have strangled them!"

Sakura tried to not imagine herself being subjected to her friend's anger...

"W-what did they do?" asked Sakura, who actually didn't want to know, but...

"Those good-for-nothing lazy asses replied to my request to a harder training with a 'why should we?'"

"Uh.. even Asuma-sensei?" asked a bewildered Sakura.

"Uh, no, it was just Shikamaru and Chouji. But Asuma didn't even correct them! He just looked at us and smoked those damned cigarettes! And continued playing board games with Shikamaru! What good are board games when a single ninja, no, a single academy graduate can come up and kill the three of us with a minimal effort?"

"Uh... now you are exaggerating..." said Sakura, but her words couldn't reach the ranting Ino.

"And after I made that very same observation, Chouji just shrugged, Shikamaru told me to shut up and Asuma-sensei ignored me!"

Sakura could not imagine the laid back Shikamaru telling her to shut up. He probably just mumbled something and Ino interpreted that in her own way, considering her mental state. She could do only one thing to calm her down. Tell her what she came here for.

"Uh, Ino... do you want to train with me?" asked Sakura, trying to look as sincere as she felt.

Ino turned her head so fast her (still not-too-long) hair almost whipped her face.

"Do... do you really mean it, Sakura?" asked the blond, bewildered and grateful.

"At the exam we were evenly matched, but my sensei recently started training me one-on-one, once or twice a week, while apparently your sensei barely gives you any training. Believe me, I know how it feels, Kakashi-sensei was like that until Naruto protested with the Hokage."

Ino slumped her shoulders. "For Asuma-sensei it may not work. He is the son of the Hokage, but they barely speak with each other even when they have to. I think he already tried suggesting to Asuma-sensei to make at least Shikamaru work harder, but he took that and he translated to himself to play longer with him! How can playing Shoji be 'harder training'? And what about Chouji and me?"

"That's why we'll train together, Ino. Chunin and above need the team leader's permission to train us, but other genin don't. If the two of us train each other, or if we can find a few other genin and form a larger group..."

"Yes, just like during the Academy days, when a few of the boys sparred after the lessons!" said Ino, getting a little enthusiasm about the idea. "Who should we recruit?" she continued, trying to think about the genin around their age.

Sakura said: "I'd say Kiba would gladly accept, but he most likely will have clan family lessons after his team meetings. The same could be said for the totality of team 8."

"Yes, you are right. I'd still ask them, however, they will have a few free days to use, once in a while." replied Ino.

"Of team Gai I'd say only Tenten could help us. Lee is still in the hospital, but when... or if.. he gets out he would be surely more than enthusiast to join us, if only to do even more training."

"Ugh.. If only he would just shut up about youth and get a decent wardrobe..." groaned Ino

"So, the only sure one is Tenten, right? Let's find her!" said Sakura, standing up.

Ino nodded and followed her newly regained friend.

* * *

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" asked a surprised Ino. "Weren't you away on a mission?"

Naruto and Tenten were in a little clearing beside training ground 17, sitting on the ground and 'playing' with scrolls and ink.

"I am a Shadow Clone of Naruto, Ino. Tenten and I are teaching each other a few things, so as long as I last I can continue with my half of the bargain."

Tenten nodded, and lifted an half-completed seal for them to see. "I teach him how to use the glaive he had at the exam and he teaches me a bit more about seals."

"Did you know about it, Sakura?" asked Ino. Sakura shook her head, she hadn't noticed at all. But, probably, she was too occupied in stalking Sasuke-kun...

"So, Naruto-kun" Ino started with a fake-sweet voice. "If I get you Asuma's permission could you teach me, too?"

Sakura said: "Ino, Naruto will leave the village in a few weeks with Jiraya-sama..."

"Oh..:" she said, dejected.

The clone raised his hand, bringing the focus of the girls to him: "Uh, there is another problem, I will only last a couple days at most..."

Ino thought about it. Her father often used seals in his work, but refused to teach her because they were too advanced for her. If she learned the basics on her own, or rather with Naruto's help, she could show it to daddy and demand a bit of his time...

"I only need the basics, Naruto-kun. And probably Sakura could use them as well."

Tenten looked almost mutinous. "And what about me? If he returns to the basics he will be gone before I can reach a good enough level to continue on my own!"

Ino snorted: "He is a clone, and has no duty to the village to take up his time. He can easily instruct all of us at different times."

"Uh.." started the clone, but was interrupted by Sakura. "Ino, didn't we come here to ask Tenten to train with us?"

"Did you?" asked Tenten, lifting an eyebrow and ignoring the clone.

"Oh, right!" said Ino, as if she forgot about it. "Amongst the remaining genin, only the three of us don't have any official additional training from apprenticeships or family, so we thought we could get together and spar after our team meetings..."

Tenten nodded. A few more pincush... er.. sparring partners were good, but they were clearly much below her level and experience. Such an agreement would give her very few benefits in the beginning.

"What do you have to share?" asked Tenten. If they wanted her to agree to it, at least they needed to offer her something of value.

Sakura said: "I know a few genjutsu, up to c-rank ones, though, but I have a few scrolls I still have to master. Kakashi-sensei told me to enroll as a medic-nin as soon as they start the new program, so I will have also a bit more than the very basic medical knowledge I learned from books. I am also earth-natured and I know a few defensive jutsu of that element, and a single c-ranked attack one."

Tenten nodded, they were very good trading chips.

Ino grimaced with envy. Sakura's training had been truly impressive if she learned all that after their match! "I'm afraid I know very little that I can share, and most of them are different kinds of restraining jutsu, to catch people with the Shintenshin no Jutsu."

"One of them with hair, maybe?" asked a smirking Sakura. Ino simply smiled.

"Alright, I'm bought. As you know, I can use most weapons found in the village with at least mild proficiency and now I know basic sealing, thanks to Naruto-kun. I have also a whole year of experience with the most insane taijutsu specialist duo you'll ever meet."

Sakura realized something, too. Turning to the clone, she asked: "Naruto, what are Ino and Tenten's main elements?"

Naruto replied immediately, having long since Scanned the two of them: "They are both Fire natured."

Sakura nodded, so she could not help them much on ninjutsu.

"Uh... how do you know that, Naruto?" asked Tenten. She knew of natural chakra elements, but she thought one's own element was only revealed to mid-level chunin...

"I cannot tell you, Tenten, sorry. But I can assure you that it is correct." replied Naruto.

Tenten then shivered and said: "I just hope Gai-sensei and Lee won't come up with my _flames_ of youth or I'll scream!"

The other three tried to get that particular mental image off their heads, too.

"So what is your idea for a schedule?" asked Tenten, recovering from her self-inflicted mental damage.

Sakura took an empty scroll from the ground and wrote down her own schedule. Passing it to Ino, she did likewise, and Tenten followed their example. Naruto just observed. Taking the completed scroll, Sakura examined it; Tenten started training much sooner than any of them and ended at the same time, more or less. Each of them had the after team-training free, at least officially. Tenten usually trained by herself, but she guessed that she could sacrifice a bit of it to this group and Sakura instead would push her genjutsu training for when she returned home. Ino having no scheduled extra training was completely free. She summarized her observations and unfolded her plan: "Ok, I'd say 2 hours on alternate days at this time would be good, this way we can do our own personal training or have free time for ourselves in the remaining days. We'll ask team 8 tomorrow to see if they have time and are interested to join us, but for now it's just the three... or three and a half of us." she said, smirking at the clone. Then she turned again to Tenten "You can get Naruto to continue teaching you seals until he disappears, we will start when he... 'dies'." Tenten nodded.

Ino raised an eyebrow, nodded at the schedule, and had a sudden inspiration looking at the clone and asked him: "If I can get Asuma to let you teach me, can you come to sensei's home tomorrow just after lunch? Maybe seeing me at work will motivate the others."

Naruto scratched his head, and said: "I don't see why not. Remember that I just have one or two days left, then I'll be out of chakra until the original comes back in a week." Ino nodded, apparently happy and with a devious smile on her lips.

Sakura was a little unhappy about being excluded from Naruto's seals training, but if he learned from Iruka's book, she would ask him to let her borrow it, too. Unless she managed to be at Asuma-sensei's home as well. Surely Kakashi-sensei won't mind her missing a few hours for a couple days...

* * *

Sasuke avoided another snake, using a smell-masking jutsu he found in his Clan library just to escape them. Unfortunately it only worked on the youngest ones, the more experienced weren't fooled as much and Anko would learn of it very soon. He still hadn't managed once to reach the tower in time, and today he had the whole day! That woman was crazy, but she was good, so unbelievably good and he was learning fast under her... torture. She already warned him that within 2 months she would start using poison on her kunai, to let him build up a few immunities, as well as teaching him how to make poisons and antidotes. The way she threatened to use wasn't very sane, because poisoning him in the middle of the Forest of Death and having him search for the antidote's ingredients there to heal himself, before he died, was maybe a bit over the top!

He wondered if this was Orochimaru's training regime when she had been subjected to it...

Stalking around another very young snake, he jumped a few more trees, but his sharingan saw a network of wires before him that were very likely linked to traps. Anko was a truly hands-on teacher. She hated lectures, both giving and receiving them and her lecture on what Orochimaru likely wanted from him was short and gruesome. Her idea of training, too, was to throw you to the wolves and let you come out of your own. If she wasn't also insane it wold be a perfect way of training someone as independent as him...

He disarmed around 30 traps, when he suddenly was caught by a wire between two kunai that flew silently around him, tying his arms to his body and bringing him on the ground, a few meters below him with a painful thud.

"You got careless, brat. Even when concentrating in removing traps, you have to keep up your awareness. You did good, though, you lasted almost 8 hours. Maybe tomorrow I can add a few more things to my 'allowed' list, after the baby snakes, kunai and wires."

Sasuke smirked, Anko wasn't usually fond of giving compliments, and if she did, it meant he had somehow impressed her. It probably was the scent masking jutsu.

"Make your usual laps, then you can go until tomorrow." said Anko, leaving him still tied, as usual, despite this being the Forest of Death. He resigned himself to another long run an started freeing himself from the ninja wire.

* * *

Akiko entered Shizune's office, with an expectant expression. Shizune herself was looking at her Ninja Profile, shaking her head.

"Akiko-chan, you are a really naughty.... girl, aren't you?" asked Shizune, with mirth. "I heard from Hokage-sama himself of your self-imposed mission, and I must admit I found it really funny if it wasn't for your peculiar circumstances and the stupidity of a lot of people. Fortunately that brought us in your current situation. Unfortunately, it also mean that you'll have to get remedial lessons on what kunoichi usually are taught at the Academy, I hope you realize it..."

Akiko realized she had absolutely no more than a general idea of what kunoichi actually learned in their separate lessons in the Academy, so she stayed silent.

"Well, I'll begin by assigning you a few books to read, and you'll finish them within 2 days. After that I'll start drilling you in mannerisms, pose and etiquette of various social strata, both male and female, naturally. After that it will depend on what natural aptitudes I see from those lessons."

Shizune made a gesture toward a pile of 7 rather thick books, with titles regarding kunoichi lifestyle, tea ceremony, ikebana, seduction, acting and other similar stuff.

"Now take the books, and try to retain as much as you can. Rapid reading and information filtering are important skills in an infiltrator and this will help me gauge your current level as well as giving you a few starting points on subjects we will touch in the next weeks."

Akiko nodded, awkwardly gathering the large and heavy books in two piles, but before she could pull out a scroll to seal them, Shizune said: "No, no! The first thing you must learn is that using ninja skills in an assignment is taboo, unless you portray a kunoichi or a ninja. You will do everything related to my instruction as if you were undercover as a civilian, so no openly displayed ninjutsu!"

Akiko grumbled inwardly and gathered the heavy and bulky books in her arms. They weren't heavy, since she was as strong as always, but Shizune scowled and she realized that a civilian girl would never be able to lift all of them at the same time.

"So, I'll have to make a few trips, right?" said a depressed Akiko. Shizune smiled, and said: "If there were any boys around here you could have flirted with a couple of them for a little help..."

Shizune chuckled a bit at Akiko's horrified face. She would learn... sooner or later.

Akiko now was _really_ glad that her mother was away with the original!

Gathering a couple books, acting as if they were truly heavy, she returned home, the first of a few round trips...


	30. Leviathan's challenge

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 30: Leviathan's challenge

by Chronodt

Asuma was playing with Shikamaru, as usual, but this time, there were two unusual additions to his normally peaceful afternoons. Additions being two thirds of team 7, namely Sakura and Naruto. He had been actually surprised by Ino's request, but he had no reason to refuse her, especially since she was getting a bit of instruction that he couldn't give her. He had never been interested in seals and had no true expertise in them, not enough to teach, at least. He just knew how to use the most simple ones like the storage seal and to disarm the most common trap-related ones. Even Chouji listened with interest to Naruto, who apparently was not the true one, but a Shadow Clone left behind for the explicit purpose of training his friends in the basics of what was rapidly becoming his specialty. Ino had actually begun grinning when Naruto told her that the very first seal she would learn was the explosive tag, and Asuma was becoming increasingly worried that his home would soon be the ground zero of her experiments if he didn't put down some rules soon, especially declaring his house a no-explosion zone. Shikamaru also seemed distracted in his game, probably because he was straining himself to pay attention to Naruto's lecture as well, despite not being able to see his work from his position.

"Shikamaru, if you are interested you can go there, too, you know..." said Asuma. He even saw Ino grinning a little at his words. Asuma knew that Shikamaru was too lazy to get into a demanding field like seals, but he wasn't the sort who would discard an almost effort-free lesson that would allow him to avoid studying that very subject in the future, because no self-respecting jonin completely ignored what seals were capable of.

Shikamaru grumbled a bit, but he left the board to go near Chouji. Asuma looked with a smirk at their interaction. At least it seemed that a certain degree of curiosity could be used to motivate Shikamaru, even in ninja skills.

Naruto lectured the four genin for a few hours, then left them to practice on their own, and Asuma hastily intervened to explain his new rules, before they blew up his home...

* * *

Sakura and Ino met with team 8 in their usual training ground. Kurenai-sensei was still there, but they waited until she concluded her lessons before approaching the students. Once she did, team 8's attention turned on the 2 visitors.

Ino immediately started talking: "Hello, team 8. Sakura and I are putting together an after-training genin club to organize between us a bit more extra training, such as sparring a little and to help each other a bit on what we are allowed to share."

Sakura thought that Ino's speech wasn't such a great introduction to her idea, and gave a few more details: "We are going to use a couple hours every other day to get together and share training ideas and tips. We convinced Tenten to join us and we'll ask Lee, too, when Tsunade-sama fixes him up, at least this is what Tenten told us. I know that most of you have family styles to train on your own, and that's why we will understand if you are unwilling or unable to join us, but it was only right to at least inform you of the possibility and of what we were doing."

Kurenai looked a little surprised from their initiative, but she stayed silent. Better not influence her team unless they requested Shino's presence or Shino requested to join up. The reason they explained their idea in her presence was probably the hope of getting the silent boy as well. And it was a good initiative for previously mediocre kunoichi to share a little more training with their peers, especially Ino who had a lazy man like Asuma as a teacher. She heard that even Kakashi finally started training his team seriously after the invasion, and if he read the girls correctly, Sakura created that 'club' mainly for her friend/rival, and a little bit for herself, too. Including Tenten was a very good idea, even if she had no idea what they promised her for her help, because she was so much better that the older girl would need to babysit the others for a few months before getting good sparring partners and improve herself as well.

Shino replied after a short pause: "I am forced to decline, even if I had the permission to join. My clan requires my presence every day to care for the clan colonies' breeding programs."

Kiba, instead, looked pretty interested, and said: "I am all for it, just let me clear it with my sister. A couple hours every other day, you said, right? I should have absolutely no problem with that!"

Sakura and Ino looked relieved. Kiba was probably the best match for the talent they had collected, as a close and mid-range taijutsu/ninjutsu specialist he had a lot of tips on how to confront close range fighters, their actual weakness. If they had Hinata, too, they could have the true close ranged specialist, too, but she looked too indecisive.

"Hinata-chan, what's wrong?" asked Ino, when she noticed the pale-eyed girl was becoming slightly depressed.

"I really wanted to join, Ino-san." said Hinata, "But I have remedial Gentle Fist lessons and my family and teachers for the first time are thinking that I could be something more than a failure. I cannot skip them, I'm infinitely sorry!" she said, bowing low.

"We understand, Hinata-chan, don't worry." said Sakura, knowing pretty well how hard it was to be considered dead weight from someone she loved. "Feel free to join us at any time, our offer has no time limit." she said, with a smile.

Hinata nodded, and collected her things to return to the Hyuga Complex. Shino also slipped away to return home. Only Kiba and Kurenai were left, and the latter spoke up: "So, how did you convince Tenten to join up? She is a whole year older and more experienced than any of you."

"She had the right idea, actually, Kurenai-sensei." said Sakura, "She knew we were well below her and at least wanted to learn something useful out of it, so she asked us what we had to share and I offered the genjutsu and earth jutsu I knew, while Ino offered her restraining techniques. She probably had the idea from the exchange she was already doing with Naruto, because she was teaching him how to use a weapon in exchange for a bit of instruction on seals." Kurenai nodded, it was sensible of Tenten to accept instructing them only in exchange of something of equal value.

Sakura then smiled a bit more, and with a smirk said: "Ino also conscripted one of Naruto's clones to teach the whole team 10 and me basic sealing as long as he lasts, just to get her lazy team to do something!"  
"Hey!" said the indignant Ino.

"Well, it is true!" said Sakura, still smiling. "And it worked, too. Shikamaru even left a shoji match in the middle of it to come and follow the lesson!"

Kurenai smiled and Kiba roared in laughter, trying to imagine the lazy boy dying from curiosity to the point of leaving a game.

Kurenai also thought that the girls showed a good deal of the right kind of initiative, more than enough to make up for that fan club idiocy they restarted a few days ago. Probably it was that disaster that made up their minds to get better as kunoichi, and if so she had to tell Anko she was sorry for criticizing the methods she used to forcibly disband them. She almost cried for her paycheck, because that girl would want a lot of 'forgiveness dango' just to show her she had been right all along...At least she was now occupied with her apprentice most of the afternoons and she could have a bit more time to work on Asuma without her interference. She had something to be grateful to the Uchiha boy, after all.

She sighed, and realized that another reason to create that club was to get around Asuma's laziness as well. She left the genin to their plans and tried to track down the lazy jonin. He had to be reminded a bit of his duties, and she was the perfect person to do it...

* * *

Naruto looked at the bridge with almost the same awe he had the first time he saw it. The Great Naruto Bridge was a true masterpiece, especially with people using it every day to get to and from Wave (and not just a little for its name.. what could it be if not awesome with a name like 'the Great NARUTO Bridge'?).

Their jonin supervisor raised a hand to hail the guardians of the toll booth on Konoha's side, apparently acquaintances of his, then he turned on Naruto and said: "Kid, this is your first patrol, so maybe you don't know it, but you have now a free day. Tomorrow at dawn we resume patrol on the way back, so get a few supplies if you are short and feel free to relax a bit. This is something exclusive to trade route patrols, so don't get cozy. When you get border patrols you'll have no time off until you are relieved." Naruto nodded, and entered the inn with the other two chunin, while Aoba went to meet his friends. After a few minutes' chat with his temporary teammates, he left, trying to find an isolated place to summon Leviathan. After about an hour, he found an isolated rocky beach. Nodding in satisfaction, he created the Summoning Glaive and opened the Death Gate, keeping in mind Leviathan's name as he reached the Farplane. The Water Guardian was evidently aware and waiting for his call, because he answered immediately, and his majestic blue and green scaled giant sea serpent emerged from the sea, raising a tidal wave that almost drenched him head to toe.

-_Uzumaki Naruto, are you here to submit to my challenge?_- asked Leviathan, in a formal tone.

-_I am!_- he answered, in the same solemn way.

-_So be it._- he said, and the sea raged, until a vertical sheet of water appeared beside the giant Guardian and crashed down on Naruto, catching him in a liquid prison and carrying him as it retracted, following Leviathan as he swam for the high seas. Naruto realized that Leviathan was simply carrying him to the place where he would sustain his challenge; he decided to simply relax and enjoy the trip. Two hours later they reached an island, which looked deserted. It wasn't very big, but it had wild vegetation that implied no human habitations, rocky cliffs discouraging boat docking and probably no drinkable water due to its small size, unless there was a rainwater inner lake that probably was more akin to a swamp and as dangerous to drink. Kushina naturally left before he summoned Leviathan because she wasn't allowed to help and he actually missed her. However he had to do this on his own, and he would!

His watery prison lifted him well above the cliff and deposited him gently on the rocky surface of the island.

-_You have until sundown to find the place where I'll be waiting for you, and you'll have to bring me something very special that is hidden somewhere in this island. You are allowed to use every jutsu at your disposal, as well as any other guardian you have made a contract with. Good luck, summoner._-

After that, Leviathan dispersed in a million water droplets, disappearing from his sight.

"Everything at my disposal, eh?" said Naruto, with a smirk. Raising his Summoning Glaive again, he summoned Ixion and mounted him, then he created a hundred Shadow Clones.

"I will wait with Ixion at the center of the island. All of you, disperse and search! Dispel yourselves when you find something strange and we'll hurry there!"

He looked at the sky. It wasn't even midday, this was going to be easy...

* * *

The four sound ninja slipped silently in the Fire Country's border, expertly avoiding a few pesky patrols. Kabuto's intelligence was no longer useful and they had to study their enemies' movements to secure a safe way in, because they didn't want to risk their plants in Konoha just yet.

"We lost too much time just to slip in!" said the spider-looking boy with a lot of arms. "Orochimaru-sama will not be happy."

"He will understand, Kidomaru" said the feminine looking boy with a second head behind his neck. "Stealth is important in this mission and we must contact the Uchiha to accompany him back to the village without being discovered. Orochimaru-sama did not impose any time restriction on the mission, so we will take as long as needed to ensure secrecy."

The six-armed boy, Kidomaru, looked impatient for a bit, but then he calmed down. Patience was his best virtue, after all, just like a spider.

Their two companions, the tomboyish looking girl and the fat guy simply stayed silent, even if the girl was apparently restraining herself from saying something really vile to her moronic teammates, but there were too many patrols still around and so she simply jumped away, followed by the rest of the Sound Four.

* * *

Naruto looked a little disgruntled. Three hours and no one of his clones found anything. Ixion was silent as well, since he wasn't allowed to offer suggestions or even hints and he realized that this challenge may be harder than he thought. His clones had searched every crevice, cave, bush and rock of this god-forsaken island and found absolutely nothing. What was he missing?

Then he realized something, and was ready to hit his head on a hard rock for not thinking about it before. Leviathan was a Sea Serpent! His hiding place, as well as what he wanted were probably in under water caverns or in tidal caves! Creating and dispersing a single clone to impart his new orders to the clones, he observed a few of them jumping in the water and start swimming, to search for this new possibility.

* * *

"This is it!" said Naruto, entering a tidal cave found around half an hour later by one of his clones. He didn't see it while he approached the island because the tide was higher back then, while now the level was so low the floor was simply wet. He saw a blue perfect crystal, as blue as the deep ocean he saw coming here while carried by the Guardian and as large as his hand. Ixion had been released just before entering the cave, as he didn't want to see if Ixion's electricity was dangerous in this place and he took the crystal in his hands. Sensing chakra in it, he Scanned it and to his surprise it hummed with a very high concentration of water-natured chakra! Realizing that this could be nothing else but what Leviathan wanted, he ordered his clones to find the hidden place of the giant serpent and complete the challenge. They found a promising underwater artificial tunnel, but it was so long that even the clones drowned before reaching its end.

Examining their memories, he realized that it was probably another challenge. A challenge Leviathan knew he could overcome, somehow, with what he already possessed. He tried using the crystal, but the chakra inside was firmly locked in its crystalline structure and wouldn't budge. He thought about chakra control exercises useful in this situation, but the only one he could think of was of a way to increase his underwater speed. It would be an interesting concept, but he had no idea on how to do it. Then he thought about his family history. If this challenge was given to everyone seeking Leviathan's help, it also meant that each member of the Uzumaki Clan could overcome it, even the ones with no water-natured chakra to easily learn and use underwater breathing jutsu...

"Carbuncle!" he yelled, thinking about his barriers. He was assigned as the first Guardian to all children, he could create barriers and he was one of the easiest Guardians to summon! That must be the answer!

Dispelling all the clones in the island, he summoned the Shield Guardian.

"Carbuncle, I need a way to breath underwater long enough to reach the end of that submerged tunnel!"

-_Yes, Naruto-sama!_- he said, and created a shimmering shield around him. -_My shield will last for 20 minutes, Naruto-sama, more than enough to reach the end of it and return. You should have more than enough air within it for the whole period._-

Naruto nodded and jumped in the sea. The water itself was displaced by the shield and he found himself in a bubble of air that moved with him. He quickly ran on the slippery surface of the tunnel increasing his grip with the tree-walking exercise and in five minutes he reached a large smooth cave, clearly as artificial as the tunnel itself was, with the majestic form of Leviathan coiled around a small altar in the center.

-_You are here, Naruto-sama, and you have the item I desired. Put the Water Crystal on the altar and you will pass my test._-

Naruto did as ordered. The crystal apparently powered an incredible network of runes, who lit up in a deep blue light, crisscrossing the whole room, and after a few moments Leviathan dissipated in the water. The crystal hummed with the Guardian's power as well, and he realized this altar and the powered network in some way was protecting the whole island. Could this place be somehow tied to the old Whirlpool Country?

He left the cave quickly, before Carbuncle's shield dissipated, and saw Leviathan waiting for him outside the tunnel.

-_I will accompany you back on the mainland, Naruto-sama. From now on, feel free to summon me when you need my help, and the power of the great ocean will be at your disposal._-

Naruto nodded and began the long voyage back.

* * *

Akiko massaged her right wrist after answering a paper with 1500 very short questions about the books she had been assigned to read. It took her a whole day to complete it, where Shizune didn't allow her to do anything more than eat and drink without her supervision.

"Ok, Akiko-chan, you are done. You can take tomorrow off while I check these, and I suggest you to reread a bit more the book on acting techniques, because that will be the topic of the first few lessons. You should realize they are the most critical ones to keep your cover safe.

Akiko nodded, and decided to go home and relax a bit. She was a little cramped from staying in the same approximate position for hours, writing answer after answer. Dropping on her bed, mentally exhausted, she fell asleep in a few seconds.

* * *

Asuma looked at Ino punching a training post with a fire and determination he was unused to see in his team. After the first reunion of their training club, she had evidently seen how behind she was in her physical shape even compared to Sakura. Asuma huffed a bit, but he decided that Ino's determination could be actually useful. Chouji was looking at her with a little fear and maybe could be persuaded to train a bit more after she leaves, just to not be left behind. He knew that Shikamaru needed a lot more than that to get him to train, however. But if he managed to get both Ino and Chouji to get a regular training schedule, maybe he could shame Shikamaru into participating as well.

Seeing his female student getting slower due to fatigue, he decided to talk to her. Kurenai almost talked his ears off the other day for neglecting his student in such a way she sought instruction elsewhere, and he was determined to remedy. After all Kurenai's opinion was more important to him than his father's...

"Ino, your arms are too tired to continue. Switch to your legs, alternating them until they are too weak to move anymore. And remember to keep your balance and to cool down afterwards."

Ino nodded, glad to have even these unnecessary hints. Naturally they were unnecessary because she had been told the very same things the day before by both Tenten and Sakura, who also drilled her in how to feel the exact moment where her muscles began to tear down from the effort without damaging them and corrected a couple of small imperfections in her movements that went unnoticed at the Academy but didn't escape Tenten's expert eye. Despite everything, she was glad that his lazy ass sensei decided to teach her and didn't want to discourage him from doing so!

She continued kicking the post, just as instructed, until it was time to leave. Today was technically the day off from the club, but Sakura suggested her to go swimming in the lake, to build stamina, just like Kakashi sensei told her a few weeks ago. Ino, seeing the results of that training when she sparred against her friend, swore to herself that she would do any training they suggested to be able to fight at their level. She quickly noticed that she couldn't compare to Sakura anymore, she was so much better than her that she felt ashamed of her ninja skills! And if their help included exhausting physical training, she would do it, for as long as needed!

* * *

The Hokage read through Hyena's report. The masked ANBU had been assigned to the investigation regarding the source of Naruto's slanders and this was the preliminary report. His eyes softened a bit, reading all the checks the elite ninja did. From those, it was perfectly clear that Hiashi was unaware of these machinations, and the conspirators were planning behind his back. He was actually glad that it wasn't the very Head of the Hyuga Clan to incite that borderline treason and that he could, in fact, involve him in the investigation itself. He still needed a few other confirmations from other sources about Hiashi's innocence, but if they checked out, Naruto would have a powerful ally behind him, because Hiashi would do his utmost to demonstrate that the Hyuga as a clan weren't behind those attacks.


	31. Shizune's initial training

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 31: Shizune's initial training

by Chronodt

Naruto stretched himself a bit, after a few hours of limited mobility. As soon as he reached the mainland, Leviathan dispersed into pyreflyes, and seeing them remembered him that he had a question for his mother. Summoning back his mother's pyrefly, he asked her: "Mom, what were all those seals in the cave? They were too complicated for me to even start to understand them!"

-_I'm not allowed to answer that, Naruto-chan, not yet at least, I'm sorry._-

Naruto nodded, a little annoyed. It was past sundown, but the sky was still 'red' enough to be able to comfortably see his way back with no problems and reached the inn within 20 minutes. Once inside, he found out his teammates were out drinking for a bit in a nearby bar, and decided he was actually too tired to join them. They also would insist to have him drink, too, but he had no intention of getting drunk for the first time away in a mission, and if he did, he would rather it be with team 7, after a successful mission, maybe trying to take Kakashi-sensei's mask off while he was at it...

He entered his room and crumbled into his bed, not physically tired, since most of his travel was propelled by the Guardian's power, but he was still a bit weary. He pulled out a book, but he wasn't in the mood to read. He wanted to go visit Tazuna and his family, but he couldn't leave the Land of Fire without orders in a mission, especially a patrol one. Only the fact no one saw him leaving with Leviathan (and the fact his mother actually encouraged him to do so) stopped him from worrying about that little excursion and if he had to, he would just tell the Hokage in private. So, out of options, he simply started thinking. His mom told him that Leviathan was a strong Guardian of Water and could teach him many things about its manipulation, if he wanted to learn it. It would also be a good secondary element for him, because most of his clan had been water-natured in the past so they knew a great deal of jutsu for him to use later on. Still it was better to start developing one's own primary element first, in his case, wind. Maybe he could convince Asuma-sensei to give him some tips in exchange of the lessons his clone gave his team, and it would cost him almost nothing to continue them after he got back until he left with the pervert.

He put that topic aside, because elemental manipulation was a high chunin skill and he had still time to learn of it. He would need to summon Leviathan to discover what the Guardian wanted to actually teach him before allowing him to make another contract, but he really hoped for that underwater move he idly imagined on the island or even better an underwater breathing jutsu. And he hoped to learn what that crystal did on that island, as well!

* * *

Akiko entered Shizune's office early in the morning, after her day off. Shizune was there, preparing a few stacks of paperwork, probably for Tsunade-sama to read, stamp and sign.  
"Oh, Akiko-chan, come in, you are just on time!" she said, seeing her over a small tower of paper.

Akiko entered and sat on the chair before the desk, waiting patiently for her sensei to finish her work.

"Ok, Akiko-chan, I have a few results from your little test the other day." said Shizune, with a professional tone: "From the way you answered and the answer themselves, I noted that you are very good at improvisation, pattern recognition and combination and when you deign to use it, you have a good empathic talent, able to discern what is wrong in a person to help him or her."

Akiko thought back to Zabuza and Gaara, and thought that Shizune could be right. About patterns she immediately thought about seals and her ease to understand them and she had always been good at coming up with new ideas at the spur of the moment, often when she needed them the most. She wondered how could she have come to those conclusions from those stupid questions...

"On the other hand, you are stubborn, know almost nothing about how other people think in a civilized society and are woefully ignorant … about girls. And even boys in some ways. You also had a tendency to overestimate your abilities and to brag, but I see you are trying to curb them with a rather good success. Nonetheless if you look closely you can see their shadows still present in you from a lot of your answers. Luckily, I can help you further in correcting those defects."

Akiko grumbled under her voice about girls being too weird to understand.

"You have also a hidden dark side, that resents the village for what it put you through but you funneled that maliciousness by performing embarrassing pranks on your tormentors before it could build up too much and overwhelm you. I will help you get a few relaxation exercises or hobbies to further discharge that before it causes any harm, to yourself or others."

Akiko was a bit startled, could it be true? She never truly noticed...

"About your... kunoichi abilities I must admit that you did no better than I expected from you. You retained about 40 percent of the materials depicted in the books, you have had just a modest acting experience with your actual cover, but you have no practical experience of the related subjects apart from that."

Akiko nodded, she expected as much. It was completely true, after all.

"Since your greatest lack is a through comprehension of social interactions, I will assign you a few romance and social novels to read and you will write up a detailed summary of each, in particular you must go in detail about the motivation behind each of the protagonists and the most prominent secondary characters that I will name. After you've done that, you'll read these books." Shizune patted a small pile of books with titles all regarding the inner work of the mind or psychology, whatever that was."You'll also reread the romances and do the summaries again, using what you learned from the books and comparing your 'before' and 'after' analysis."

Akiko paled a bit. It looked like a lot of work! _Book_ work! And not even ninja related!

She internally groaned, but hid her frustration.

"You are allowed to use a clone for each book, if you wish, to speed the process a bit."

Akiko shook her head and said: "I will be able to do that only when Naruto comes back in 3 days."

Shizune nodded: "Well, until then you still have your work. This is the list, and I have reserved all of them from the library just for you. Enjoy!" she said, with a smirk.

Akiko left, grumbling under her breath about bossy sensei and stupid useless mushy books.

* * *

Chouji munched on a bag of chips, while he observed Ino's training against the wooden post. She was really determined and once in a while, she mumbled about 'not being inferior to her' and pushed herself harder than she ever did. Shikamaru made his opinion known often, in his usual way, but that only inflamed Ino's temper. Luckily she discharged it on the dummy rather than her team.

Chouji ate the last chip, and thought about Ino's proposal a bit more. Was he ready to commit himself to additional training? Especially without Shikamaru? He thought back to the second test in the chunin exams and realized that team 10 was probably the weakest team to pass it, and it was mainly due to Shikamaru's ideas. Now his lazy best friend could no longer help them in the next test, he would have to join a third possibly unknown teammate.... and he could be disappointed in him. Shikamaru knew him from childhood and would never tease him. Ino sometimes still did, when she was angry, but a new squad member would give him a look, see his abilities and dismiss him as a weak... plump boy with no use. Could Ino's club really help him? Seeing Asuma-sensei's approval as she was improving in his eyes, and... he too wanted that approval, for once completely deserved! Especially after sensei threw him a comment about taking his training more seriously right after Shikamaru's promotion.

Steeling his resolve and dropping the empty chip's packet in a nearby bin, he walked toward Ino, and said: "Is there still a place for me in your club, Ino?"

Ino stopped, visibly surprised. "Of course, Chouji. Come with me tomorrow on the next meeting, and we'll start!" Chouji nodded, and returned to his sitting place. Shikamaru was still playing with Asuma-sensei, but he was sending him a couple curious and annoyed looks. Shikamaru would surely understand and forgive him, after all he was doing this for himself and for the team. Even Asuma-sensei seemed to approve of his decision, but why did he get the feeling he had just been used for something?

* * *

Kiba was sparring with Hinata, trying to think of a way to ask her out while Naruto was away. Despite the girl's improvement, Kiba still won most of their spars but the gap between them was closing rapidly. No surprise about it, the Hyuga _were_ the premiere taijutsu users of Konoha and their style was the deadliest in the whole village. Once the girl rediscovered her talent she progressed at an astonishing rate, to the secret joy of her teachers, _all_ of them.

Returning his thoughts to the dating area, he tried to find a way to pry her affections from the loudmouthed blond, but he couldn't find anything that wouldn't make Hinata hate him at the same time. That girl almost literally defined her existence by her value to Naruto, and that wasn't healthy, especially because that knucklehead had no idea the girl had a crush on him since the Academy days. The very though made him growl a little, but even distracted a bit he still managed to avoid a palm strike on his shoulder. How could sweet, gentle and timid Hinata like what everyone considered to be a complete failure, a braggart and a a loudmouth? Considering recent development, he could concede the fact that maybe she had been able to see his hidden talent before anyone else, but their characters were so completely unmatched! He would never be able to make her happy, and considering that half the village hated him, no one would allow him to get together with the Hyuga princess! Hinata would be better matched with him! After all, he was handsome, he was likable and was the second child of the Inuzuka Clan Head, so a valid pretender for an arranged marriage. Even if he heard rumors about her and Neiji being already betrothed, he had no confirmations and didn't dare to ask Hinata herself, but it was probably an hoax. Hinata and Neiji were cousins. No, worse, they were almost step-siblings because their fathers were identical twins.

Dodging another knife-hand thrust, he thought about asking her out... ah, no, he forgot her lessons. Since she had been deemed able to return to active duty she had been trained for hours after their team meetings, and after her sudden change they let her have even less free time, not enough to even go to eat something together. Taking her arm and bending it, in a way where she couldn't reach his tenketsu, he forced her to yield. After she did, he heard Kurenai-sensei approaching.

"Kiba, you should concentrate on the fight while you are sparring, but you still did well. Hinata, good job. You are free to go."

Hinata nodded, bowed and swept a bit of dirt from her clothes before leaving.

"Kiba, what was distracting you from the fight?" asked Kurenai, her red eyes boring in his, and he found himself slightly intimidated.

"I... was trying to get her away from Naruto. It isn't healthy!"

Kurenai raised her eyebrow. "In what way?"

"She... she.." Kiba started, but could not think of a way to express what he thought without sounding simply jealous. "She is placing all her heart in Naruto, and he doesn't even acknowledge it! He could ruin Hinata-chan with a single word, and I'll not allow it!"

Kurenai sighed. In many ways, Kiba was right, but she knew the girl since her first days at the Academy, when she had been tasked to escort her to school. She had had a few heart-to-heart discussions with Hinata-chan on the subject of Naruto over the years and she knew she had a bit of an obsession with the boy, but her low self-esteem wouldn't allow her to consider herself worthy of him. Hinata's change was due to the fact that the boy told her she was one of his precious few friends, and she held to that thought with a steel grip, because she convinced herself in all these years that it was actually the highest worth to him she could ever hope to reach. She also observed Naruto and he was so starving for friendship that he would die before hurting Hinata, and considering how carefully he chose his words recently, someone had already warned him of Hinata's fragile mental state. She also knew that Naruto would leave the village in a few weeks and in those few years away she could slowly work on Hinata herself to curb the more unhealthy angles of her obsession. She honestly knew the two of them weren't even close or ready to being more than friends, but she saw even more improbable couples over the years.

And it wouldn't even mean they would ever get together at all!

"Kiba, you must realize that you cannot decide for Hinata. You are right that Hinata is still somewhat dependent on Naruto's opinion of her, but have you ever heard the boy say something really hurtful to anyone?" She paused to let Kiba truly digest what she said, and seeing the boy understand, she proceeded. "I also know that someone must have warned him to be careful of what he says to Hinata-chan, so don't worry too much about it."

"Are you sure, sensei?" asked Kiba, still a bit worried.

"I am quite sure."

Kiba nodded, but he still wasn't truly convinced. Kurenai-sensei was treating it too lightly for his tastes. He resolved to keep an eye on it, for his own peace of mind, at the very least. And for his chances to be with Hinata-chan, of course!

* * *

Sasuke sparred with Kakashi-sensei, using bits of the Snake style he learned from Anko-sensei. He was pleased of his progress, in just over a week he had become strong enough that he managed to reach the Tower once, yesterday. Naturally Anko simply nodded and said she would add a surprise to today's 'allowed list' and as a prize she would teach him a c-rank attack jutsu. She hadn't specified which one, but considered her preference of showy and bloody ones, he was sure he wouldn't be disappointed. Sakura was on the side, walking a bit to cool herself slowly after her rough workout; he vaguely noticed the small corrections in her style and her slightly increased endurance. After her fan club nonsense that gave him horrible flashbacks of the Academy days, she pulled herself together and decided to train even more seriously than before, letting him finally hope to have finally a decent team. Kakashi-sensei already told them that a few days after Naruto returned from his patrol, they would go all together in a c-rank mission, the first after Wave taken as a full roster team 7. He was also anxious to show off to the dobe his new strength and the tricks he learned from surviving Anko's hellish training. He could already imagine his envious face...

* * *

Lee walked on the roof, tears on his eyes. Even after a week, he couldn't decide whether or not to submit himself to that risky medical procedure. His heart knew he would prefer to die rather than stop being a ninja, but...

He was finally joined by Gai sensei in his walk, while he thought about the first time they met, when he was an Academy student, completely unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu of any kind. After that, he remembered the first time his team gathered together, how Neiji belittled his dream and said he was destined to be a loser forever, while his sensei defended his dream. And another memory, of when Gai sensei told him the secret of his great strength, of his determination to train to be the best, of the reason behind his seemingly stupid self-imposed rules.

"Gai sensei... what should I do?" Lee asked, with tears on his eyes. "Even if I tried my best, even if I gave my all, could it have been all useless? Even if I believe in myself, I... I..."

Gai was completely silent, letting his student to let out his feelings.

"Why does everything happen to me, Gai-sensei? What should I do? TELL ME!" he asked, desperation in his eyes.

Gai opened his eyes, with a serious expression. "Lee, if you lose your dream you will suffer even more than what you are suffering now." Gai sighed a bit, then added:"I am just like you, a complete idiot, because I couldn't live with myself if I lost my way of the ninja. Accept the surgery, Lee. After all, luck is also a part of your strength!"

Lee nodded, and Gai was finally feeling a little relieved. Tsunade-sama told him she had an idea on how to slightly increase the chances of success, but still they weren't above the 60 percent mark. But he would believe in her and in his pupil. No one could quash his youthful spirit!

* * *

Hyuga Hiashi looked at the papers the Hokage gave him with ever-increasing fury. They were complete of times and dates, bank statements, signed witness depositions, and discrete investigation results.

"I understand why you decided to inform me of this in private, Hokage-sama, and I'm truly grateful for it. Be assured that I will investigate promptly but with discretion to bring the perpetrator to justice!"

The Hokage nodded, emptying his pipe. "I trust you, Hiashi, but please keep me informed. If they have outside accomplices we must ferret them out as well."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Hiashi said.

Inside, the Hokage smirked. Hiashi was so angry that heads would probably roll once he discovered the perpetrators, figuratively speaking, naturally, since they did not commit any capital crime against Konoha or its citizens. They _did_, however, betray Hiashi and the Clan, and the Hyuga Council was fully allowed to do anything it wanted to them as long as they were full qualified members of the Clan. Even if the criminals belonged to the Council itself, they would be temporarily removed and sit under its judgment. And 'Akiko' was right, if the culprits were who he suspected, those old fossils would get their power to their head, and try to manipulate Hiashi himself, or his heirs, if they didn't already. Hinata's previous and actual psychological fragility could very well be their fault as well, but it was just a speculation right now. He needed proof, and Hiashi would do the hard work for him. Sometimes it was good to be able to delegate these kind of jobs.

* * *

Akiko stopped reading the first romance novel in the list, 'Moonlight in Suna', for a while, massaging her head. These books made almost no sense! Why should those two want to do those things? They were rather gross as well! It's true that her mother told her about a few of those things, but she never really understood the motives behind them, because they were well beyond her experiences. Even when Shizune-sensei hinted that she would be forced to flirt with guys she found it really hard to conceive it, after her initial horror, especially because after reading this book she realized she _already did_ what she now realized it was flirting with a boy in the past... even if she no longer remembered his name. Ya... ya... whatever, the guy she duped into letting her into the Archives. By what she gathered from gossip, she thought that 'flirting' was something only... er... disreputable or shameless girls did... but at least the books her sensei assigned at least clarified what flirting actually implied. And Shizune-sensei was right, it was an important weapon for a kunoichi and while passing as one she had to know it. She just hoped she didn't have to kiss a boy or worse, she would surely draw the line at that!

Looking at the night sky outside, she decided she read enough for today, and went to sleep.

* * *

The four sound ninja slipped inside the village, using instructions carefully crafted by their leader, Orochimaru-sama, to avoid some kind of detection jutsu while entering the perimeter of Konoha. They had a map of their quarry's living area, but they had to contact him and deliver their leader's message first, and that meant studying the subject's schedule to determine the stealthiest approach.

"Stinking Fatass! Move your censored overgrown asshole before I kick it!" said the only true girl of the quartet, after the fat one accidentally brushed her while ducking under a bush.

"Girls shouldn't talk that way..." replied the fat boy, before the girl unleashed a string of profanities even worse than what she said before.

"Tayuya, Jirobo, silence! We are on a mission!" said the girlish looking boy, while the six-armed one snickered when he heard a "fairy" comment from the foulmouthed girl.

The apparent 'leader' of the four restored order and they left to look for Sasuke's apartment, following Kabuto's map, to keep him under constant surveillance for a few days.


	32. The secret library

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 32: The secret library

by Chronodt

Naruto finally reentered Konoha, successfully concluding his first patrol mission, with a little extra, too, in the name of a new contract with the Water Guardian Leviathan. He immediately created a dozen clones to catch up with Akiko and to help her in the search of a classified secret library, because until he returned home he could not afford the headache of her dispersion to instantly learn what she did in the meantime. He was extremely curious to see if Akiko had been able to make a plan to get those books while he was away because he had had a few new ideas on how to implement his pyrefly bunshin and couldn't wait to try them with a bit of jutsu construction theory behind him.

Reaching the Tower, they began the short debriefing, an 'everything was completely normal to the point of absolute boredom' report, naturally. Returning home, he saw at least ten clones sitting in various places in his apartment reading... romance novels?

"Ok, Boss, you're here." said Akiko, relaxing on the bed with a book. "I'll wait until it's bedtime to dispel unless you want to read with a horrible headache. I have a mountain of things for you, because Shizune-sensei kept me completely busy reading books all week. Fortunately unlike Kakashi-sensei I still could read those books in public without causing a riot or disgust."

Naruto looked at the titles and shivered. No doubt that they would strengthen her 'girl' cover. Three fourth of them were cheesy romance novels!

"I could still listen to a few gossip a little while reading them, but many people would then ask me about the books and if they were any good rather than what I wanted to focus on. Apparently, however, there are no new rumors about us."

Naruto nodded. Could they have already given up? It didn't make any sense, if it wasn't for Akiko's army of counter-gossipers at the most critical moment they could have even succeeded...

"What should I do?" Naruto asked the clone. Since Akiko received constant updates from the clones he used regularly, as of right now she was even more 'advanced' than the original and had a fuller picture of what he should work on.

"We have the books covered." said Akiko, having already distributed them to the clones in the room. "As soon as I dispel, they will also receive what Shizune-sensei had me learn from a few other tomes, but they won't need it to complete the task. I already sent the others to find that library and we need no more manpower for that task. I'd say that you should go train with Leviathan, as soon as you replenish your Gates, at our fishing spot at the river to see what he wants to teach you. While you wait you may even try to shave a few more seconds from your use of Life."

Naruto nodded. As Akiko knew, they were down to about 8 minutes, still not enough for even a single success, because the slowest post-mortem Death Gate opening he measured, the true time limit to use Life, was around the 7 minutes' mark. After that the soul departed and nobody would ever be able to bring it back, not even with his bloodline.

Naruto was about to leave, when Akiko apparently remembered something. "Ah! You should know that I have nothing ready for dinner..." and she concluded with a completely fake sweet smile.

Naruto smiled, this time he would simply bring the cleaned dead birds back and put them into the fridge, because Akiko naturally knew he was almost in withdrawal from Ichiraku's ramen. He was going to break his record today!

* * *

Naruto looked at the majestic form of the Sea Serpent Leviathan, the Water Guardian. Despite his fears, summoning a Water Guardian didn't require for him to be near water, because he was actually made of pyreflyes, but he still came here because he realized that the Guardian would probably teach him something that needed water to perform.

-_Naruto-sama, it's good to see you so soon. And you are right, you'll need water to learn what I'm going to teach you._-

Ah, right, the Guardians could read his mind...

-_Indeed, Naruto-sama. What I am about to teach you, are a few of the most difficult chakra control exercises from the Whirlpool country, that sometimes make their appearance also on a few other water-related countries. I am not surprised that you thought about most of them during my test, despite not knowing of their existence._-

Naruto's eyes bulged out. "So there are really jutsu to breathe and move in water?"

Leviathan's giant head nodded.

-_Using them I will also be able to transport you across water bodies much faster than the last time, and I will be able to carry your companions as well if they are all know those two skills. And there is a third one you didn't think about, Water Talking, that would allow you to communicate verbally even while submerged. It's more like an addendum to the water breathing skill, but since it can be altered to work with any dense medium, with little effort, it deserved to be considered a separate skill._-

Naruto nodded. A way to move along water faster than any ship would be priceless in a coastal mission. And not only that! Rivers, too! As long as they could fully contain Leviathan and himself he could probably travel undetected and at incredible speeds!

-_The first one you will learn is the Underwater Movement. To completely master it you will also need the Water Breathing skill, but the Underwater Movement's initial training is easier to learn and an useful first step. To do it, enter the river and expel chakra from all over your body to envelop yourself in a cocoon of water. This cocoon must be very 'smooth', or water currents will destroy it in a few moments. To begin, you should create it in calm water, such as that small lake the river is flowing to. Once you master the shell, you will move in increasingly turbulent water, until you can keep it stable for a whole hour below a waterfall. When you learn Water Breathing, the final mastery of both techniques will be that very same waterfall holding both techniques active for a whole day, but that is still far away, for now._-

"How can that help?" asked Naruto.

-_Because having a shell of water under your control will allow you to propel yourself any way you wish, and you'll be able to completely regulate your movement. H__owever __I'll tell you more details when you have mastered what I already told you. Be aware that all of these chakra control skills are extremely hard to perform, and will also help develop your water affinity._-

So it was a training with a double benefit, even better!

He rapidly undressed and jumped in the river, starting his new training!

* * *

Teuchi and Ayame were happy to see again their favorite customer, with a lot of new stories, too. He actually tied his old record of 8 bowls of ramen, and he realized that until he grew a bit more he wouldn't be able to beat it. Not that it mattered, right now, because he was feeling pleasantly full. He left the restaurant with a much lighter wallet, a bulging stomach and high spirits, until he met a couple of his disguised clones. He actually recognized them only because he knew their disguises, having thought them up in the past, so he wasn't completely surprised by the fact he was near one of the suspect buildings. Deciding to ignore the clones and the building both to not draw suspicion, he continued his walk, reaching the Academy building. There he saw Konohamaru and his crew, so caught by a little bout of inspiration, summoned Gamakichi and began training them under the guise of playing ninja.

A few hours of 'playing' and he left the kids, too, to return home. It was late and it would be the perfect moment to endure the Akiko induced headaches, due to a whole week of memories filling him at once.

The results were both bad and good at the same time. Shizune's observations on his traits made him think, as well as Akiko's reservations on what that kind of job would require that kind of training out of him. Fortunately he found something in the memories left by the clones that distracted him from those creepy thoughts: he finally found a (weak) link to the ANBU library!

* * *

A henged Naruto clone spied on the identified building hidden by a henge as a piece of garbage, dropped by another clone. He had been lucky yesterday, because the clones that were keeping this building under surveillance felt a small hidden killing intent when the Boss passed nearby on his way to the Academy. Investigating it, they discovered it was one of his haters, a nondescript special jonin whose name was Yushima Harujiro from his Scan, but in ANBU he was known as Monkey. He was mainly a combat specialist, specialized in short range ninjutsu/kenjutsu. Since he was one of those idiots who hated the Boss, they had absolutely no scruples in using him and the fact that he had been seen first near one of the suspicious sites made him truly perfect for their goals. Naruto's clones shadowed him using at least 60 different disguises for a whole day, while the original constantly created and dispersed new clones to keep ahead of anything their quarry would notice and using everything they learned from those books Shizune-sensei forced them to read to keep themselves inconspicuous. Their Archives shift was also relegated to a clone, albeit a full-powered one, who examined the paperwork in his workplace for anything that connected that jonin to the building they had under surveillance to determine if it was what they were looking for.

It was almost literally playing with fire spying on an ANBU, but they had the advantage of never using a single face for more than ten minutes, often even less than that, while following their prey. Considering that even elite jonin would have collapsed from chakra exhaustion after the first three hours of making shadow clones, no one could be seriously considering such a feat being accomplished by any less than two full squads, and such a crowd would probably be spotted within minutes by an elite ninja like his quarry in his home turf. They were also looking for possible incriminating material, it was a bad policy to leave known enemies in positions of authority over you without some possible leverage against them, but they saw nothing interesting. He just calmly did his shopping, after all ninja had to eat, too.

Seeing him enter a private habitation, they guessed it was his home, and were tempted to organize a new stake-out with a couple clones again henged as objects, but they desisted. They had no idea if an ANBU could detect henged clones, but they knew that they couldn't risk their discovery just to see if he was able to sense the clones, especially because they would be forced to stay for too long in a single place just outside his home!

* * *

Ino looked with distrust the dinner packed by Chouji. Since he had very little skills he was allowed to trade, he was tasked of preparing their food (whose ingredients they bought together). Despite seeing Sakura eat a likewise large portion, she said: "Chouji, how many people you wanted to feed with all this?" and she lifted her bento.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Kiba, looking curiously at the girl. Akamaru beside him didn't even slow down eating his share.

"It's almost triple of what I usually eat!" said Ino, a little irritated. "It's a waste!"

Chouji murmured something, but no one could understand what he said.

Tenten looked at the amount in the little box and said: "I don't see anything wrong with it, Ino, and if you eat only a third of this, is no wonder you are weak."

Ino looked at her with anger. "What do you mean?"

Chouji said, in a slightly louder voice: "Food is not only the fuel, but also the building blocks of your body." and Tenten nodded.

"Chouji is perfectly right, Ino. If you eat so little, you'll never build up stamina or muscle strength, because you lack the materials to do so! And with your increased training regime, you also will need more fuel as well! Look at Sakura. How long has she eaten that much? And how much did she improve in that time period?" she looked at the pink-haired kunoichi and she answered: "I've started a few days after the preliminaries. Ebisu-sensei brought me to a restaurant and told me the same thing Chouji did. And he was right, even the medical books say so! My training efficiency rose dramatically after I ate the right amount to balance my effort."

Ino looked at the little box again. She reminded herself of her vow to follow their advice on training related suggestions and decided to dig in, to the satisfaction of a smiling Chouji.

"Whose turn is it next time?" asked Kiba. They decided that on each reunion of the club, one of them would teach to the others their 'specialty'. After Tenten and Sakura, on taijutsu mixed with throwing accuracy and genin level genjutsu respectively, next time it would be the turn of someone else.

"It's mine." said Ino, trying to think how to put together some semblance of a lesson plan.

"And mine is..?" asked Kiba. He had been asked to teach about tracking, naturally. Inuzuka were trained in it since birth even in traditional tracking, for the eventuality of an enemy being able to disable their clan advantages and had a lot to teach on that topic.

"The following one, just after me." said Ino.

Kiba nodded.

* * *

As it finished its Archives duty, the Naruto clone was summoned to the hospital. He entered Tsunade's office, trying to see if Shizune-sensei was around and if he being here was related to her instruction. He saw his new 'hidden' sensei, but she was simply organizing Tsunade's desk and barely glanced in his direction.

"Naruto-kun, I think you have heard by now that Rock Lee decided to submit himself to an extremely dangerous surgery to remove bone fragments lodged in his spine."

Naruto nodded, but he hadn't heard about the details. It sounded really nasty.  
"I wish to try an experiment, to see if the natural properties of your White Chakra can enhance his chances of survival in the surgery, even if only by little."

"How?" asked the clone. Whirlpool village had something like that, but he didn't know the seals because his mother told him they were too advanced for him, yet.

"I will draw this harmonizing seal on the ground." she passed a detailed graph to Naruto. It was a really advanced seal, this too was beyond his ability to create, but he could guess its purpose analyzing it for a while. It was a medical seal, used to blend multiple chakra sources under the control of the lead medic. It would mean that unlike the seal his mother described he had just to pour in his White Chakra and she would shape it as needed. However, the leader had also to compensate any lack of control of any of the contributing medics, that's why it was usually only used by a team of medic-nin.

"If it enhances Lee's chances of survival by more than what the effort I'll need to employ to overcome your average chakra control decreases it, I think it will be worth it." continued Tsunade.

Naruto nodded. To tame his chakra she would have to concentrate a bit of her attention to its control, attention that she won't be able to devote to Lee. The seal his mother told him a few weeks ago, instead, required near-perfect control of his chakra as well, something he could not hope to reach while he had the fox inside him. Tsunade's seal apparently allowed members of his clan to help medic-nin even when they have little chakra control. It was a truly genial idea and he would have to ask his mother if any of their ancestors ever thought of it. It was still good for their clan secrets, because even while with this seal medic-nins could use his White Chakra, they couldn't hold it long enough to study it, just see its effect on the patient, something it would be impossible to hide anyway.

"When can we try?" asked the clone, and Tsunade nodded toward a side room. Entering it, he saw an already completed training circle. It was smaller than what was needed to power a jutsu of the level she would need, but it was a viable test of its capabilities.

"What about now?" asked Tsunade with a tired smile.

Naruto nodded. It was luck that he was the only full-power clone the Boss created today, this way he could open two Gates and it would mean that Tsunade would receive the equivalent of a single Gate opened by the original when fully rested. He was now able to do it within seconds, too, and very close to opening the third!

Tsunade brought over a caged white mouse.

"I have inflicted an injury similar to Lee's on this little one." Tsunade said, with a sad smile. "And now we will fix her."

Naruto nodded, and placed himself on one of the secondary circles, placing his hands on the right seal.

"I will need you to slowly increase the White Chakra output until you feel the harmonization effect step in." said Tsunade, placing herself in the master position and the mouse in the center of the array.

Naruto nodded, and opened the Initial Gate, pouring it through his hands on the seal on the ground. Slowly increasing the output, after five minutes he finally 'felt' the harmonization thing Tsunade spoke about. It was a sort of humming feedback from within his own chakra coils, through his arms and up to the tip of his fingers in contact with the seal. Tsunade's brow was concentrating, a pale green enveloping the sedated mouse and finally concentrating on her spine.

"It's working!" said Shizune, examining the scene from outside the seal.

A few minutes later, the seal deactivated itself, and Naruto checked his reserves. He used less than 20 percent of the White Chakra in his Initial Gate, so the original could give 20 times more without any trouble.

"Yes, it was a success." said Tsunade to Shizune. "The White Chakra has truly astounding healing abilities, but Naruto's control is so bad it is truly hard to use it efficiently. Considering the increased difficulty of the operation with his contribution, I'd say that we can raise Lee's chance of survival by no more than 10 percent. Still, 10 percent is more than enough incentive to offset the increased difficulty."

Naruto nodded, thinking about dedicating this whole night to Leviathan's chakra control exercises, to make it easier on the medic and raise Lee's chance of survival further. "When do you need me next?" he asked.

"I will do a couple more tries this evening without you and if I cannot replicate what the natural effect of your chakra did on the mouse's tissues, I will call for you to operate on Lee tomorrow afternoon." Tsunade shook her head, and added: "I truly doubt I will be able to, however, so keep yourself free and rested at around 16 o'clock. I will also inform Kakashi about it, so tomorrow you have a free day."

Naruto nodded and left.

* * *

As the various Naruto clones finished up their written book reports, the original came back and pulled out the hidden map, writing up a few new entries in it. He finally circled a building, smiling. "That's it, finally. The ANBU headquarters!" he said to the clones in the room and his mother, whose pyrefly was floating around. "That guy I followed today cut three days of work off my schedule, just by leaving that building when he did. The clones found out no less than five off-duty ANBU leaving the building dressed as ordinary people. Now I must find a way to get in!"

He smirked, this looked like the good old days when he planned his pranks on the villagers. Pulling out an interior map of the building, copied from the Archives, he realized immediately it was a fake. There was no way this was the correct one, because it contradicted his own observations about room placement and such.

"So they are making it harder. No matter, I will succeed." he said, with a mad cackle.

-_Naruto-chan, be careful. This is not the Hokage monument, guarded by just a few chunin patrol, this is an ANBU building, and guarded by the very best the village has to offer. Fortunately it should not be a high security building because I know where the true ANBU headquarter is, but it will be harder than anything you have ever done._-

Naruto nodded, acknowledging his mother's words. "Uh... you know where it is?"

-_Naturally, Naruto-chan. Your father was the Hokage, remember? And even if they moved it, ANBU unfortunately die rather often and we keep ourselves informed for your sake, should you need that information._-

"Uh... how can I access it?"

-_I will be allowed to tell you only if there is a true need for it. Just be aware that I know, because if there is some kind of emergency you can ask me before getting in trouble._-

Naruto nodded, digesting that information. He then returned to his planning.

"I will probably need a diversion, a diversion that would attract the ANBU instead of the chunin patrol, and I have no idea what I can do that won't cause harm to the village itself. I cannot certainly ask a missing-nin or something of that level to just stroll in Konoha, can't I? And if I release a bit of the Kyubi's chakra it will make harder for the village to believe I have killed it, in the future. I will also need a true map." He thought for a moment, then he returned to the pyrefly. "Mom, can you scout the place?"

-_Sure, Naruto-chan. That is the very reason the free pyrefly summoning technique was created, after all! I was just waiting for you to ask for it._-

Naruto nodded, now he could create a true map and see if it contained the books he was looking for before trying to enter. Remembering also Tsunade's need for Lee's surgery, he left his apartment again to reach a hidden clearing, created as much clones as he could and left, leaving them to organize themselves and do Leviathan's chakra control exercises in the nearest river, lake or even hot spring. Another clone would wait hidden somewhere in the proximity of the target building and would write up an interior map of it, especially traps and seals. He would later destroy it, naturally. Kushina also confirmed it: it was an ANBU training center, complete of a small library with everything he needed. It was a true jackpot!

The original, instead, relaxed in his bed while starting to read those psychological books now that he read all the romances Shizune-sensei assigned him. Once in a while he received a few memories from a clone who in its over enthusiasm dispelled itself either by chakra exhaustion or simply by being injured, and found that memory dumps were a great annoyance while he tried to understand a hard and technical book.

* * *

Sasuke retired to his apartment, annoyed. His new shadows followed him again, as soon as he separated enough from Anko-sensei to not be detected by her. They were good, but not feeling any hostile intent, he guessed they were a few new recruits in that stupid fan club. Highly trained kunoichi, at that. At least half of them were...

He shivered, thinking of the fact that at least two of them were probably male. Fan girls were bad, but fan _boys_? He quickly shied away from that thought.

He was rapidly losing his patience as those guys never came too near. Maybe they underestimated him. Due to Anko's training, his sensing abilities increased considerably in the last week alone and if he had been the same as back then, he wouldn't have even noticed them.

A sudden thought froze him for an instant.

Could it be that they actually did stalk him for months before he actually noticed them?

No, it was unlikely, they were almost surely new additions, and at least chunin level, if not more. That and the fact that the first time he noticed them they were already inside his perception range.

Entering his own bedroom, he created another new array of traps. He was beginning to think that Anko-sensei could very well try to ambush him in his sleep one of these days, and if not her, one of those stupid girls. After the schism between them and the two genin, the fan club had become truly feral; they fought between themselves about who would try to steal a lock of his hair, his toothbrush or some other stupid thing just to do their own sick things on it. He was tired and was hoping for one of them to try to actually enter and be skewered by one of his traps!

Damn, Anko-sensei was already influencing him way too much...

* * *

"Why the hell is that guy being followed day and night by those stupid girls?" asked Kidomaru, the six-armed boy.

"It's called charisma, bug boy, a shitstain like you probably never even heard of it!" said Tayuya, the tomboyish-looking girl. And turning to Jirobo, the fat-looking one, she said: "And don't dare patronizing me again, fatass!"

Jirobo closed his halfway opened mouth, and shook his head in silence.


	33. Lee's operation

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 33: Lee's operation

by Chronodt

Naruto looked at the completed map his clone completed during the night and analyzed the progress done by the clones training in Underwater Movement. Luckily their tiredness didn't transfer over when they dispelled themselves and their memories also integrated well while he slept. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to continue this routine in the future.

He took a loose paper from his notebook and tried to float it with chakra and noted that now his control was noticeably better than yesterday evening. It wasn't even above average, yet, but Leviathan's training was truly effective to do that much after the equivalent of about a week of ordinary training. Technically speaking, summing together all the hours of training the clones did it would be closer to three weeks, but he long noticed that there was a certain degree of overlap in the memories of a bunch of clones doing the same exercise, because they were, after all, all copies of the same person and often had similar ideas or intuitions. This lowered the efficiency of the memory dump, and the more clones doing the same thing, the more it became evident, naturally. This, however, was countered by the fact that it increased the chance that one of the clones had a lucky breakthrough in the technique they were trying to perform. The ideal number was a matter of balance between steady training progress and intuition potential, and naturally, the chakra required from the technique.

Today he had technically a free morning, provided he didn't drain his White Chakra for Lee's surgery, and even if he could use one or two clones and let his coils 'recharge', he decided to just take it easy. He had been working like mad for months, and he deserved a little vacation, even from Shizune's books. He decided to simply use a henge, just to be anonymous and simply enjoy himself around the village.

* * *

Shikamaru grumbled a bit, performing again the Shadow Neck Bind on a training dummy, under the watchful eyes of his father. The lazy rookie chunin grumbled a bit about being forced to work hard with his father while his teammates were away in an easy d-rank mission, without any warning as well! Asuma-sensei simply dropped him here after he announced that Ino and Chouji would be doing a mission along with Neiji from Team Gai.

Holding the handseal he cracked the wooden neck of the dummy, discharging his displeasure in this unusual way. Nara Shikaku smiled seeing that. Asuma actually came to talk to him a few days before and told him what Ino and Chouji were doing in their free time. He truly approved of their resolve, but unfortunately his lazy son was more like him than his mother and would need a bit more than that to convince him to train.

Shikamaru tried again, and again it was a perfect result. His boy had truly great potential. If only he decided to apply it! Hopefully, his teammates' example would motivate him, just like Asuma hoped. He surely wouldn't want to become the weak link of his own team, especially now that he was the highest ranked one amongst them!

* * *

Naruto was actually bored. In the past to fight boredom of this level he would have simply thought up and performed a village-wide prank. He was no longer used to have this much free time and he had no idea on what to do. He idly played with a few fallen leaves, unconsciously floating them in a chakra control exercise he mastered months ago.

Shizune was right, he truly needed an hobby, even if just to keep boredom away. Thinking back at his new sensei's evaluations, especially his ease with patterns and improvisation, he immediately though at some kind of art form. Drawing, painting, playing an instrument were all good hobbies, but he had little interest in music and his 'art' was usually reserved for the Hokage monument (snicker) but he could draw up seals. Not the 'ninja useful' seals, either, because he would associate them with ninja work and it wouldn't be an hobby. He could simply start creating seals to make his life comfortable. Why, just thinking about his most favorite thing in the world, ramen, he could create a heating seal that could reduce or eliminate those hateful 3 minutes' wait for instant ramen!

Or... he trembled from excitement at the idea... he could create a preservation seal to seal up Ichiraku's ramen and unseal it still steaming hot and delicious and...

He wiped the drool off his chin and quieted his rumbling stomach, returning his mind to the idea of 'domestic' seals. For him, designing seals was something like a mix between a crossword and a jigsaw puzzle. Complex but fun, and once he saw a pattern (like a few filled in letters or connected pieces in the examples) he could easily fill in the remainder, just like he instinctively knew the final result despite seeing only a part of it. It was actually this ability that allowed him to create his anti-paint seal (he still had to find a cool name for it) and his fake-directional modifications to the clone seal.

He took out pencil and notebook and began thinking about something he wanted to try. The ramen-heating one was high on his priority list so he started making a few trial combinations, while humming a merry tune...

* * *

Naruto looked at the empty instant ramen cup and the middling complex seal on its bottom. It was his first test for the super-ultra-ramen-heating-seal. He built it around the concept that the ramen noodles were precooked and just heated up by the hot water poured inside, so he created a central fire seal, tempered by a few water and limiting ones that would keep the temperature of the contents below the boiling point. Three focusing sub-arrays would point the heat produced on the inside of the cup, permeating whatever was placed inside it and heating it all uniformly. He also had to create a safe discharge to account for his chakra control so that excess energy wouldn't transform the cup in a 'steam and ramen bomb' (or create a cloud of smoke as overcharged seals were prone to do), as well as slowly decrease the amount of heat transmitted to the contents once the initial heating was done. That way it would remain hot a bit longer than normal, but not boiling. Not that he usually let it, naturally! He had no good ideas on where to put the drained energy, yet, so he simply slapped in a light emitting array that would simply emit a bit of light with no other problems. He filled the cup with water and tried the seal. It worked beautifully, the water became steaming hot, almost but not quite boiling, and the blue light show was pretty to watch and gave a 'magical' feeling to his future ramen.

His first trial a success, he crafted the seal in a true instant ramen cup, while he let the other experiment cool down on its own, to see how long it would take. He quickly realized that crafting the seal took way more than the 3 minutes needed to cook the ramen in the first place, but he could do it well in advance. Ten minutes later, the seal was ready, so he filled the cup with cold water and activated the seal, probably in his impatience using a lot of chakra, because the light emitted from the seal was almost blinding! The smell that came up from the cup was delicious, though, and he tried to taste them immediately. They were ready! True _instant_ ramen, finally!

Wait... if he could perfect a bit more the design, cut away the light show and such, he may even market the seal to... no, it was a _bad_ idea. He was the demon host, they would simply steal his work, claim it as their own and force _him_ to stop using it or, even worse, convict him for 'stealing' a commercial seal array, at least until he became an official Seal Master and registered it as his own creation. Akiko had no official seal background so she was out, too. He would just ask Ero-sennin for a few suggestions on protecting his original seals that he wanted to keep to himself. In alternative, could the fake-direction be useful for seals? He could use the skills he was still gaining from crafting the Life construct that way...

He tried it, but he simply could not move his hands in that direction, his body was not built for it, as well as his senses. So he tried something different. Since apparently only chakra could move in that fake direction, he had to somehow learn how to write and read seals with it, and while he had a good idea on how to do the former, probably using water chakra manipulation, earth chakra manipulation or even both, the latter completely baffled him. His best bet, however, would be to find a blind ex-shinobi who somehow managed to learn that skill and learn from him. Well, maybe it was something as simple as coating the surface of what you had to read and 'feel' the difference between ink and the material it was written on. He would try it himself fist, naturally, because he had no shortage of clones to do experiments with, especially at night.

Finishing the ramen cup, while he tried to go slowly to see if they kept warm, he declared the initial version of the seal a complete success, and he had to stop himself from creating a few clones and send them to inscribe that very seal on all the instant ramen cups he had at home, remembering Lee's surgery in a few hours.

Then he noticed he forgot to put the equivalent of an 'off' switch on the seal...

"Uh, oh!" said Naruto, as he dropped the empty cup. Without any liquid inside, the plastic container was becoming truly hot because the limiter seal, linked as it was to 4 water symbols, operated by reacting to the temperature of the water inside. No water meant no limit..

He saw with dismay as the cup melted in a smelly puddle of plastic and caught fire, quickly quenched by a simple water jutsu.

"Ok, it is time to create the super-ultra-ramen-heating-seal mark II." said Naruto, disposing of the first experiment as well in a similar manner.

* * *

Iruka looked with suspicion at the instant ramen cup crisscrossed with seals that Naruto gave him to eat. It was lunchtime at the Academy, and just as he was about to eat his own packed lunch, Naruto came up showing him that cup and babbled excitedly something about a seal of his invention able to heat up instant ramen in a few seconds. He shook his head, only Naruto could think up such a seal. Under the eager eyes of his former pupil he filled the cup with tap water, cold tap water, obeying Naruto's instructions, and placed a bit of chakra in the seal. He could immediately see steam flowing out of the cup, and he tasted it. It was almost ready! He looked at Naruto with amazement, the boy had actually _invented_ a working new seal? After little more than 2 months in his seals instruction? Damn, this truly spoke volumes about what his colleagues, and to that he had to unfortunately add himself, saw of his talent: nothing. They had been so completely blind to Naruto that they crippled his abilities before he could even show them, seeing the Fox in his place when he instead did something worthwhile. Shame filled his thoughts, realizing that he, too, was guilty of it for at least three fourth of his last year. Eating his now cooked ramen, he found it as good as usual. Naruto's seal reduced the cooking time of instant ramen from around 3 minutes to around 20 seconds, and Naruto babbled something about using more chakra to let it cook up even faster.

"It's an incredible seal, Naruto." he said with a smile. "But most people are not so impatient that they need a seal just to avoid waiting a few minutes..."

Naruto pouted a bit.

Iruka laughed, then he took out his lunch. "Since you offered me a cup of ramen, I think I'll have to share this with you, or I will not be able to finish it." he said with a smile. Despite Naruto being a chunin, too, he was still a child at heart and his face lit up with happiness from his simple offer. He once more cursed the villagers and his Academy instructors, including himself this time, for their shortsightedness in regards of the boy, no, the ninja before him. Or better yet, the future Hokage.

He realized that despite encouraging the boy for months he never felt as sure of his capabilities of becoming the leader of this village as today, and for such a simple thing as a ramen-heating seal. A seal that did not exist before this morning.

As soon as Naruto left, he absentmindedly looked at the Hokage monument, especially at the fourth face, remembering a few abilities history books wrote about him. Could it be...?

* * *

Tsunade checked the last seal on the ground. Lee was already unconscious on the floor covered in seals at the center of the array. He was restrained so he would not move in his sleep as well as face down, his back exposed. Shizune was drawing a few more seals on his naked skin with a brush, connecting them to the larger seal around. Naruto observed all this from the door, taking care of staying away while the two kunoichi worked to not disturb them.

"I've finished, Tsunade-sama." said Shizune, concluding her last check-up of the seals.

"Let's begin, then!" Tsunade said, gesturing for Naruto to take his place in one of the secondary circles. Shizune did the same.

As soon as Tsunade entered the Master Circle and put her hands on the seal, lighting it up, Naruto opened the Initial Gate and began pushing White Chakra in the seal itself. The harmonizing effect took a bit longer to reach, this time, because the chakra requirement was higher for a human-sized body rather than a mouse, but soon he felt it again, that weird tingling feeling from within his coils.

"Let's begin!" said Tsunade, and a wave of pale green chakra enveloped Lee's spine. Her face was a mask of pure concentration and Naruto, due to the peculiarity of the seal, couldn't even guess what she was doing with his chakra.

The light show continued for three hours. Naruto prepared himself to open the Heal Gate toward the end, but it wasn't necessary because Tsunade concluded a few minutes before he could deplete the first one.

The medic rose on her feet, then sat down in a nearby desk to rest a bit. "That was.. exhausting, but it looks like we were successful." she said, pouring herself a bit of sake from a bottle she hid in the desk drawer, while Shizune palmed her face and shook her head. She had scoured the room for sake before beginning the ritual, but she overlooked such a simple place...

Naruto smiled, while he stretched a bit. That was good news, Lee truly deserved to continue being a ninja! He could hear Gai's excited banter in the room outside, he probably overheard Tsunade's comment and was celebrating in his usual way, loudly, without even realizing he was still in the hospital. Tenten and Neiji were there, too, and were slowly getting a little distance from their sensei, trying to look like they did not know him. Well, Naruto himself would do the same in their place...

"Naruto!" yelled Tenten to get his attention, after seeing him leave the 'room of seals'. "Is Lee alright?" she asked in a more sedate voice once she was near enough that Gai's voice would not drown their conversation.

"Apparently so, at least Tsunade-sama's comment implied that." he replied.

Tenten nodded slightly, envious of the fact Naruto had been invited in the room without even being a medic-nin, but he boy refused to explain why he had been allowed inside despite that. Could he be partly responsible for the seal? He _was_ Jiraya-sama's apprentice, after all!

"I'll see you in a few hours, then. Remember that we still have our lessons, don't forget!" she said, returning to Gai's side now that the hospital personnel managed to convince him that it wasn't youthful to disturb the rest of the patients.

Naruto turned to see Neiji standing with his back near the wall with his eyes closed. He truly looked like he had removed that pole from his ass. He wondered if the Hyuga who wanted to discredit him resented him for his change or for the humiliation he inflicted their prodigy in a public arena. If they were normal people he would say without hesitation that it was the humiliation, but the Hyuga _were_ weird and actually prized stiffness and behaving like assholes, while calling it 'being noble'.

He realized with a start that he still found hard to forgive the boy, but he was getting better because he did not feel the need to murder or maim him on sight anymore. A great deal of that probably came from the fact that Neiji apologized to him, and apparently to Hinata-chan, too. That was something no villager had done before, and only the Hokage and Iruka-sensei ever did (and truly meant it), amongst the ninja population before him. Not even Kakashi-sensei truly apologized to Sakura and himself for neglecting them for months.

Well, it didn't matter. Neiji was not coming to him and he wanted to work a bit more on forgetting what he did to Hinata-chan, so he didn't go to the older boy either, and he left the hospital.

* * *

Naruto created a few clones and resumed his various training routines, while a commission of four clones discussed the best approach to the ANBU library. The idea with the highest approval was to study Monkey and impersonate him, simply enter the building, substitute the books he needed with henged clones, hurriedly copy them at home and replace them after he was done.

It was also highly unlikely to work.

Monkey was much stronger than himself and the way he moved or subtle signals purposefully designed to avoid similar situations would betray his disguise to any ANBU he came across. He was just a rookie chunin, but if he could put together such a plan, the village elite surely had thought about it, too, and taken countermeasures. He had to think up a truly innovative idea, something so crazy or, inversely, so obvious that even ANBU would never think of it. Something that also wouldn't imply an 'Uzumaki Naruto was here' written in golden letters in the eyes of the victims. Than he had an idea, something he never used in his pranks because he had been notoriously unable to in his academy days...

"_...Yes, it could work_", thought Naruto, creating and dispelling a clone to give a single order to the Life practicing clones. Half an hour later, a hummingbird in a small cage was delivered to his position. Now it was the hard part.

Layering a genjutsu on the bird to temporarily control its primitive brain, he took out a little paint and put on it those small markers that differentiated messenger birds from ordinary ones, that he obtained just by asking his mother. Only high-ranked ninja knew the various color codes and that distanced him further from the crime. This particular color code would imply a genuine urgent ANBU message; he would send the bird to 'warn' the ANBU in the library that he was urgently needed at the headquarters and a clone would step in immediately from the window, bypassing the alarm seal he studied last night and substituting the true books for pyrefly constructs that had no chakra to mask. A library, even the ANBU one, would not be a truly sensitive area that needed constant watch, and the guard would not need to look for a replacement. Unfortunately, this would mean that he had no way to put the books back, because they wouldn't fall for it a second time. He would drop them near Monkey's house, even if he knew the Naruto Hater would never be framed for it.

-_Could it work, mom?_- he asked the pyrefly, after explaining his plan to his mother.

-_It's risky, Naruto-chan, but you have not too many options at your disposal right now. Everything I know that could improve your plan is of an higher rank than what you're ready for. I'd suggest, however, to take a few more books related to the Celestial Gates or taijutsu in general. They would only suspect that someone unauthorized wanted to steal Gai's ideas after seeing Lee at work. None of those book would be coveted by enemy ninjas, so only local ones will be investigated._-

Naruto nodded, and despite everything decided to go for it. He created a clone, that also henged into Monkey for added safety, and drew a seal on his skin to stop him from leaving his smell behind, a higher ranked version of the seal he used against Kiba that still unfortunately had several problems, chief amongst which the fact that it completely stopped the air around in a way that wouldn't allow the subject to have breathable air for more than 5 minutes after its activation. The clone would need to drop it fast once he was done with it or 'die'. Once completed, the original gave orders to the clone to start the mission in 15 minutes. Even if he was discovered, as long as he could secure the books it wouldn't matter, he knew Konoha probably better than any ANBU and all its hiding spots were at his disposal. The original, instead went to training ground 17, trained with Tenten with the glaive, and made sure to hit himself hard enough that a shadow clone would be dispersed. Even if it wouldn't be that much of an alibi because most of the ninja knew he could do shadow clones, at least he could demonstrate his presence in a whole different area and doing completely unrelated things.

Returning home, he saw the desired books hidden between the romance ones, and smiled. The clone had not yet dispersed, so he did not know what happened, but it had been at least partially successful.

Half an hour later, he had his answer. The clone did succeed, but his entry was discovered a few minutes after he left and having restricted books in his hands, even if he no longer resembled either Monkey or Naruto himself, 'she' had to act inconspicuous as an ordinary civilian who just bought a couple romance books in 'her' bag, until 'she' came home. After that the clone resumed his usual appearance, took and removed the paint from the fake messenger bird and disposed of it on the spot, placing it amongst the ones already in his fridge. It would do him no good to let the bird be recognized.

Now the original had a few more books to read, and before going to bed, he created two clones for each of them, as well as about thirty to train in the river. They would disable the seal traps hidden within, copy the books and dispose of the originals in a hiding hole near Monkey's home just like planned after erasing all their tracks, including scent, because the fake books placed in the ANBU library would disappear in 24 hours, making ANBU suspect a second, successful break-in and they would actually start actively looking for the missing books. They would undoubtedly use the tracing seals he could not remove without destroying the books as well, but they would not find them in his possession! Having taken the Celestial Gates and those other taijutsu books, like his mother suggested, would truly work in his favor, because all his teachers knew he could already open the Gates without any benefit and he already had a taijutsu style to train in, a style that almost surely wasn't included in the book. Fortunately, right now, he only needed the jutsu creation theory books to create a new family jutsu, and he could simply say he found it in his family scrolls as well...


	34. Fangirl hunting season!

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 34: Fangirl hunting season!

by Chronodt

Hyuga Hiashi was in his bed, but he wasn't actually sleeping. In fact, he was wide awake, his eyes closed, but the byakugan active. For that very purpose, he altered the seals covering a few rooms in the complex so that he only would be permitted to look through them and his vast experience in lip reading allowed him to see and 'hear' what a certain trio of Hyuga Elders were plotting in another room. Gritting his teeth, the Clan Head prepared himself to memorize word for word what Tozashi, Morisaburo and Kimitoshi were saying to each other...

* * *

"So what is the plan?" said the first of the three Elder Hyuga, who Hiashi identified as Tokashi.

"We will use the Honorable Grandson, both as material executor and witness." said the second, Morisaburo, the apparent creator of the plan.

"How do you plan to do it? And why him?" asked Tozashi.

"He is an unofficial pupil of Uzumaki. Should a branch member approach him in the guise of the demon container and ask for his help to perform a prank to... demonstrate his ninja skills, he would surely participate."

The third, Kimitoshi, nodded. "What are the details?" he asked, sipping a cup of tea.

"We will give to the branch member and the Honorable Grandson this drawing, to be reproduced on the Hokage Monument, just below the great stone faces." said Morisaburo, pulling out a scroll. He showed them a drawing of the Kyubi no Kitsune crushing a burning village with a strong resemblance to Konoha under its feet with what could only be described as an expression of feral joy in its vulpine features.

The other two elders nodded, approvingly.

"It will surely do its job." said Kimitoshi.

"And naturally we will pressure Hiashi to defend the Honorable Grandson after the material executor of the prank comes to light." nodded Tozashi, admiring the subtleties of the plan, "After we point out that the demon brat corrupted his grandson, even the Hokage will be forced to withdraw his protection from Uzumaki. He probably won't be severely punished, but his reputation will be completely crushed, and the village will hate him as much as they did just after the attack 13 years ago. The Hyuga Clan will also be seen as firmly behind the Hokage, properly disapproving of the brat's actions."

"Who can perform such an impersonation amongst the branch members?" said Kimitoshi, pointing out the most critical parts of the plan. "And how will we keep the true Uzumaki away from the Honorable Grandson while we convince him?"

"I intend to order Hyuga Kyota to cover the first role." said Morisaburo, quietly.

The other two frowned in silent disapproval of the chosen name. Kyota was a branch member that had only mediocre talent in the Gentle Fist, worse even than Hinata at her worst and for that reason he was never allowed to go to the Academy, else he shame the Hyuga's reputation as the premiere taijutsu specialist of Konoha. He was, however, good with the Henge, acting and information-gathering, unlike the old Hinata, and that made him weak, but not worthless. He also was loyal, trustworthy and had the closest approximation of the demon brat's character amongst the Hyuga. Unfortunately. that just meant he was what people outside the clan would probably deem a 'normal' or 'average' person, not even close to Naruto's exuberant personality.

"Even if I find... distasteful having to use that failure, he has the highest probability of performing this mission successfully." said Tozashi. The other Elders nodded, too

"As for keeping Uzumaki away, we will... 'provide' a suitable distraction." resumed Morisaburo, "Our spies report that he is often seen training in private with Neiji's teammate Tenten. A jonin-rank genjutsu will probably take care of the brat for a single night. We can assign that to Hyuga Genma, another loyal branch member."

"I hope he realizes the brat is only 13." said Tozashi, remembering Genma's favorite literature.

"He will be properly briefed on acceptable behavior of the illusion, but even if he goes too far, Uzumaki will probably think of it as a dream, afterwards." said Morisaburo.

"I think we can approve your plan." said Kimitoshi.

"I agree." said Tozashi

"So be it" concluded Morisaburo, finishing his tea and standing up.

They left the room in silence.

* * *

Morino Ibiki was happy.

No, he was not torturing a poor soul, as his detractors would think, but he was actually enjoying an almost whole week without Anko's eccentricities. He considered that almost a paid vacation, ever since that Uchiha brat managed to entrap himself as her apprentice. He was glad to have given him that little suggestion, and he didn't even lose the betting pool, because, as professionals, his fellow gamblers knew the boy was already on the right track and recognized his victory. To show his sportsmanship, he even offered a round of sake to his colleagues with the ryo he won from the bet.

He flipped a page of the report he was reading and raised his eyebrows. Apparently someone snaked in the ANBU training center today, but didn't do anything more than snoop around the library. All books were accounted for, and the ANBU guarding it swore the messenger bird had the correct markers when asked. A leak? Probably yes, no one should be able to replicate those markers and all the true birds have been checked. Sabotage? Improbable, the window of opportunity was smaller than five minutes and the area had been throughly searched with the byakugan from a Hyuga ANBU member. It was probably some information hidden in the room that someone wanted desperately. Had he been in charge he would have assigned an investigation team to it and checked every single book for tampered or ripped pages, but his department had only been involved to question the guard, nothing more, so it wasn't his problem, but he would send a note about it with his report to the Hokage. His squad just had to see if the guard had been involved in any way, but he had broken no regulations or protocols, so he had been released within 10 minutes.

His quiet moment was interrupted by an unexpected winged visitor, signaling a summoning from the Hokage. Minding the report he just read, he double checked the bird and finding it authentic he used the Shunshin no Jutsu to reach the Tower. Hyuga Hiashi and the Hokage himself were waiting for him in the Hokage's office, both expressionless.

"Morino-san." greeted the Hyuga Head with a nod.

"Hokage-sama, how can I help you?" asked Ibiki, with a bow.

"Hiashi has brought me worrisome news about a few Hyuga Elders. Apparently they decided to teach young Naruto a lesson for humiliating Hyuga Neiji at the exam by inciting the villagers to lynch him during the Festival. They also planned to involve Konohamaru in their scheme, as well."

Ibiki looked at Hiashi, who repeated word for word the conversation of the three Elders to the two other shinobi.

Ibiki thought for a while, then said. "You want to catch them red-handed, don't you?" the other two shinobi nodded.

"If I go to the Hyuga Council now they will only get a death sentence, or if they play their cards well just a demotion to the branch family." said Hiashi. "If we catch them ordering the manipulation of the Honorable Grandson and the impersonation of a Konoha chunin, as well as ordering an act inciting civil unrest we can... give them to you, Morino-san, then execute them in private after you have finished working with them. The Hyuga Council at that point will have no authority over them, because it will be a crime against the village itself."

Ibiki smirked. He loved breaking those rare traitorous Hyuga, they were normally so stuffy and upbeat that he actually loved to see them squirm, break down and cry.

"They will most likely wait until the very last moment to give the orders, to ensure their pawns would not try to confirm their orders with you." said the Hokage to Hiashi, closing his eyes. "And now I must keep an eye on my Hyuga aides as well, to see which ones are involved in the plot and then let them be interrogated to see the level of their involvement."

Hiashi nodded as well. The Hokage dismissed them and the three ninja calmly returned to their jobs. This would also bring up many changes in the Hyuga Clan itself, Hiashi was sure of it.

* * *

Naruto's morning training with team 7 was going splendidly. Sakura improved enough that while she was Hasted and both himself and Sasuke were Slowed, she could keep up with both boys at the same time as long as Sasuke restrained himself to Naruto's level and didn't activate his sharingan. Her stamina was still very low, so she could not keep that feat up for long, but it was still a large improvement over her pathetic fangirl days. Not that she completely stopped being one...

Kakashi-sensei looked with approval, for once, at all of them and Naruto felt strangely satisfied as well. After all, his family jutsu were making his whole team stronger, didn't they?

Sakura jumped back, panting heavily and both himself and Sasuke stopped the attack, as that was the implied 'stop' signal. She lasted ten whole minutes, this time, going all-out while Hasted!

"Good!" Kakashi-sensei exclaimed. "Tomorrow we will do a short c-rank mission, so prepare yourselves accordingly." Each member of team 7 smiled at that.

Leaving the team meeting, he felt the dispersion of the last of the book-copying clones. All the books they copied were now hidden near Monkey's home and the copies sealed up in a few scrolls closed with blood seals as if they were family scrolls. He would calmly read them later with appropriate consultation materials to get over the hardest points in the theories. Even if he copied also the extra books, he saw that there was little that could be of use to him, not until he mastered what was already completed of the Whirlwind Strike style, at least. They would come in handy when he had mastered what his father managed to create before his death and it was time to complete the style, but not before; and that meant not until a few years, even with clones helping him.

What he was actually interested in, now, was the handseals theory, in particular the fact that there was no indication at all of the modification created by the 'cross shaped' seal of the Shadow Clone jutsu, the only one he was actually forced to perform. Most of the time he just bypassed the other handseals manipulating the chakra directly, because it was really simple for a b-rank kinjutsu. Could that last seal be one of those fake-directional handseals mom talked about? If so, once he realized how that handseal manipulated his chakra, he should be actually able to use his fake-directional training to completely use the Shadow Clones technique without any handseals at all!

That was a truly worthy objective, because no simple physical restrain device could hold him if he could just whip up a clone without even moving his hands, but to complete that goal... he had to go again to the library and read another few higher level math books.

Life truly hated him, and not the White Jutsu, either!

* * *

Hinata worked hard against her new Hyuga instructor in the Gentle Fist. She 'graduated' from the previous one just a couple days ago, and that slightly raised her status in the Clan for the first time since her mother died. Her rock-solid emotional foundations she built with Naruto-kun's indirect help were a safe refuge in the first days against the contempt of the Elders and instructors, but while the Elders continued considering her a total failure, her instructors were slowly changing their minds, to the point of giving even slight praise once in a while. She used that small encouragement to finally rebuild her shattered self-confidence on those solid foundations. It would be a work of many years, but now she finally had a base to work on, that would not shake at the first stern look. Even Hanabi-chan noticed her new mental state and started to consider her as a sister again, rather than a weak sparring dummy she was forced to fight once in a while. They were a long way from sharing sisterly affection or something of that sort, but it was a beginning. Even Neiji-niisan had become civil to her, and she had to thank Naruto-kun's example for everything!

As for her team, Kiba and Akamaru were as boisterous as always, while Shino, if possible, was even more serious than usual. The added responsibilities of a chunin seemed to appease the silent boy's need for order and rigid hierarchical structures, just like a hive. Despite everything, they were growing as a team, and Kurenai-sensei told them that after the next chunin exams, she was pretty sure her team would be an all-chunin one.

* * *

"Ok, brat, time to get rid of your annoying fan club!" said Anko, throwing another kunai toward the nearest hidden girl. They heard a squeak and the noise of running steps. "They have gone well past the limit of decency, and if they don't stop by themselves, I will make them!" she said, twirling a kunai by the ring.

"Now, for today's exercise, we will simulate hunting down and killing pesky civilian spies, and what better targets than those brainless stalkers?" she smiled, and it was not a nice one. It was a kind of smile that if ordinary people were to see it, they would think: 'Hurry! Hide the children, the Kyubi is coming here to eat them!'

Sasuke himself was actually pitying the fangirls, now. (and the two fanboys, too)

"Now, my task for today is this: You will go there, capture a single fangirl amongst your stalkers, truss her up like a pig and drag her sorry carcass here, keeping her conscious all the time. After that, you will give me, while she is listening, of course, a detailed and bloodthirsty description of a way for killing her slowly and painfully. If the girl doesn't find it horrifying enough to pee herself, you will do 5 laps of the Forest of Death. For each one of those girls you will also give a brand new description and a different cause of death. And you won't stop until you get rid of them all!"

Sasuke gulped, this was a truly daunting task! He had _dozens_ of fangirls on his trail, in a rotating schedule!

"What are you waiting for, brat!" she yelled, throwing a kunai near his privates: "Hurry up and start! I don't have all day!"

Sasuke shot away from Anko toward the nearest fangirl, ninja wire ready, and captured her within 10 seconds...

* * *

Akiko closed the last book on human psychology, holding her head against a migraine. As she was in the public library to use their relaxing reading room, she had to stifle a groan. This stuff was even harder than math! And she knew she barely scratched the surface of the topic with a single read-through of those three books. At least the final part of Naruto's plan about the secret library was finally concluded. By this time, the fake books would have silently dissolved in a shower of pyreflyes, naturally invisible to anyone else as she discovered after Kabuto's ambush. Evidently for her mother that was an information so completely obvious, since she grew up in her Clan, that she didn't even think of spelling it out in detail. Well, to be honest she _did_ tell her that pyreflyes would not be visible unless she used White Chakra to make them so, but she had supposed that providing her special chakra just for summoning it up was enough, but it turned out that she had to give even _more_ chakra than what she usually provided to make them visible to 'normal' people!

Luckily, that meant that the books, in the eyes of the ANBU, would simply vanish in thin air, becoming more and more transparent until they completely disappeared without even a telling cloud of smoke. If the ANBU weren't actually watching they would never take notice of it, and if they did, they would immediately think of high level genjutsu, instead. It could be truly useful as a thieving technique, as she demonstrated!

Deciding to rest her mind a little before re-reading those arid psychology books to try to understand them a bit more, she relaxed a bit, trying to find a short book as a light reading. She snickered a bit seeing another disguised clone fight with math books, and she simply started flipping over a cookbook to get a few extra recipes for cooking birds or fish. She was truly tired of them, by now!

* * *

Ibiki looked at the second report in two days involving the ANBU training center. Apparently his hunch was correct, someone wanted information from that library, and they stole a few books. They either stole them in their first incursion the day before, and left a genjutsu so powerful that fooled the byakugan or, more likely, they failed plan A and tried again, this time successfully. Unless the first incursion prepared the way for the theft. The books and the library itself contained several seals as protection, so even a Hyuga could have missed a couple extra mixed amongst all those books. If only they had investigated the books as he would have done...

Fortunately the stolen books weren't at all valuable, just training material for new recruits that they could easily replace, mainly taijutsu and ninjutsu related, but the fact that someone managed to get inside an ANBU protected building told them that security was lax and there was probably a leak somewhere, because they had too much information about the building itself to avoid all the traps and the seals, get in, do whatever they did and leave within 5 minutes. He _was_ a suspicious person, almost to the point of paranoia, so he did not believe that this was a fluke. Someone inside must have blabbed something and he wanted to know who. He wrote to the Hokage his personal recommendation to start an internal investigation and to secretly move the training facility in a different location as soon as they purged their ranks from spies and similar scum. It was due, after all, especially after the failed invasion. After all, many spies could have managed to get inside the ANBU ranks during the chaos of the failed invasion and the subsequent rebuilding...

* * *

Sasuke dragged himself to the Hokage's office. He 'punished' fangirls all night, until dawn, actually, and had been forced to run around the Forest of Death so many times he lost count after 60. After that he simply snapped and began crushing each of those girls' hopes of a happy future with the last Uchiha. He simply didn't care anymore at that point and it didn't help the fact that he actually loathed fangirls, further increased by the aggravation of day and night stalking for weeks. At least he managed to keep himself from behaving too similarly to his crazy sensei. That woman was a public menace! Luckily, as usual when he was with Anko-sensei, he didn't detect those 4 mixed gender stalkers. He had no wish to show Anko he had fan _boys_ as well in that fan club! She would tease him about it for years!

He at least rejoiced thinking that that devil-woman was probably swamped in paperwork today, for forcing him to scare to death all those civilian girls. He hoped that at least this would disband that idiotic stalker group; if he was forced to repeat yesterday's 'training' Anko sensei would surely force him to do something worse to them, and it wouldn't look good to the reputation of his clan...

He yawned and then he glared at his happy teammates. His _well rested_, happy teammates...

Luckily, the c-rank mission was a short one, just like Kakashi-sensei promised. They just had to deliver a dozen small chests that Naruto promptly sealed up and return with the agreed payment, a matter of a single day. Unfortunately, it was a day where he was dead tired, but he would simply eat a soldier pill. They were created just to keep ninja active for up to three days, after all!

* * *

"Have we gathered enough data?" asked Kidomaru to Sakon, as they sat hidden outside the Uchiha's apartment, where they were would await his return from the mission.

"Yes, we have his ordinary schedule verified. As soon as he returns from that mission, we will approach him where we planned and we'll inform him of Orochimaru-sama's offer. Fortunately, that funny fangirl purge will probably let us contact him without any interference."

"It's damn well time, damn faggots!" said Tayuya, still irritated to lose all this time following the Uchiha asshole and his stalking harem.

"Girls should not talk that way..." Jirobo started, but was again cut up by Tayuya: "I was including you too in that comment, censored fatass!"

The sound four simply quietened and simply returned to their relaxed positions. Today was an easy day, after all.


	35. Danzo and the Sound Four

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 35: Danzo and the Sound Four

by Chronodt

Sasuke entered his home, a little tired after a whole day without sleeping, when he felt the 4 mixed gender stalkers close in, finally. He raised his guard, putting himself in an advantageous position. They were coming with violent intent this time, but no true desire to kill. Whoever they truly were, this was just some kind of test for them, or worse, a game. They surrounded him, and he saw they were wearing a sound headband. So Orochimaru wanted so much his new guinea pig that he sent his lapdogs, now? And how did they get past ANBU all this time? There was no other explanation, there must still be a few well-placed spies of the Snake in their ranks! If that was true, he could forget about reinforcements, he would have to bring them down all by himself!

"So, who are you?" asked Sasuke, actually curious to see how valuable he was to the traitor. He also noted that three of them were boys, not two like he thought, but the third was so effeminate that it was no wonder he identified him as a girl.

"We are the Sound Four. I am Kidomaru, the East Gate." said the six-armed boy.

"I am Jirobo, the South Gate" said the big one.

"I am Sakon, the West Gate." said the girlish-looking one. He was even wearing make-up!

"I am Tayuya, the North Gate." said the girl.

"_They really sound pathetic, but I already know they are good, and I am alone against four. However, as long as I can disrupt their teamwork I should be able to take them._"

As soon as he thought that, the four ninja attacked. Jirobo flew forward, but he avoided it and used his body to jump over Sakon and Kidomaru's charge, kicking them against a wall were the last member was. With a small acrobatic he placed himself before Jirobo and kicked him, too, against the others. They disappeared in a Kawarimi no Jutsu, leaving a few logs behind. Turning on his right, he saw the four of them, in line like they were striking a pose. As he guessed they were good and didn't even show their full strength, but neither did he, after all. As long as they kept their current level, however, he could conserve chakra as he didn't need to activate his sharingan.

"What is your objective?" asked Sasuke, but he didn't expect a truthful answer. Given Anko's descriptions of her old mentor, he would probably have his lapdog lie and tell him he would make him stronger, with little or no strings attached. A pity they would... neglect to inform him of inhuman experiments, of high mortality rate, of his little human toys or of the prisons where he kept his 'cattle' to do as he wished. As if that traitor truly wanted to make him stronger! If he wanted that, he would not have used a seal that had a 90 percent mortality rate. He was interested in him just because of his sharingan and because he survived his culling technique. His only objective in trying to make him strong was so that when he took over his body he didn't need to personally spend time training it; there were no guarantees that he would even try to kill Itachi after that! He would no longer gamble his ambition like that, he learned his lesson!

"We have come with an offer from Orochimaru-sama." said Sakon. "But before you can hear it, we must verify your capabilities!"

"_In other words, Orochimaru wants to know how long I must be trained before it's worth his time taking me over..._" thought Sasuke, acidly. "_So these clowns must be his trusted soldiers, they must be stronger than I guessed, damn!_" After training with Anko, he had a much better idea of the difference in strength before himself and a jonin, and while he was pretty sure he could take one of those notorious low quality _sound_ jonin or two by himself, he held no illusions about his possibilities in taking out four of them at the same time without backup.

Girly boy shot again toward him, alone. Sasuke avoided his charge and trapped his foot as well with a bit of ninja wire, and while he was at it, he also primed a few explosive notes where girly boy's foot was now stuck. Anko-sensei always said that there was no thing as overkill in ninja battles, and that was one of her few insane philosophies he embraced wholeheartedly. The notes exploded, but somehow the strings were cut, allowing his enemy to escape unscathed and Girly boy... had a kunai and an extra arm that was melting back into his leg right now!

"That had a good sound. But now let me perform my symphony for you." Sakon said and launched himself again at the Uchiha. Sasuke parried easily his strike, but was hit again by an extra pair of arms that emerged from his body. Sasuke actually saw it, this time, as he was paying attention to that strange phenomenon.

"Your bones don't make a very good sound..." he said, with a fake disappointment.

Sasuke stopped paying attention to his ramblings, because from his side the spider-boy shot some sort of webbing from his mouth that he managed to avoid, and replied by throwing four kunai at him, but the fat one blindsided him with a body slam that left him breathless and sent him back to the girly boy. He recovered in time to kick the transvestite under his chin and start his Shishi Rendan, the Lion Combo, but he noticed that unfortunately those freaky extra arms were parrying each one of his blows, so he jumped away immediately after he completed the attack, to avoid being attacked by his almost undamaged downed opponent. He was attacked instead from the three other sides at once by a combination attack from the other three freaks. He jumped up, but was caught by the spider-boy's webbing, a web so strong his kunai could not cut it even when chakra-enhanced. He tried to burn it out with a jutsu, but the girl hit him in the stomach with a thin and long blunted metal weapon, stealing his breath. When he looked at her, he noticed he had been hit by a metal flute.

At that point he immediately activated his sharingan to equalize the fight, they were obviously well-trained in concerted combat, but as soon as he felt pain and foul chakra spreading from his neck he realized he made a mistake. With his low chakra supply due to his lack of sleep and the waning effect of this morning's soldier pill he felt the cursed seal trying to take him over, and used everything Anko-sensei taught him to keep it confined like it should be. Unfortunately, it took him too long to get the seal back under control and he was punched again by the fat boy, making him see stars. He barely managed to raise his eyes, and he saw that all of those freaks had a cursed seal active, similar to his, but at the same time different in each individual appearance. The waves of foul chakra coming from the four ninja made him sick, but there was no question that in his current condition they could easily overpower him. Even if he managed to activate his own seal, he would still lose because they didn't seem to have any trouble from theirs. It made sense, the Snake would make sure that only his loyal pawns could have a stabilization factor added to their seals, just like Anko-sensei theorized, to control them if they went rogue ad to insure loyalty as well, by influencing their mind.

While he was wheezing on the ground, Sakon, the girly looking boy said: "Pathetic, he isn't worth even one tenth of Kimimaro. He is even afraid of using the cursed seal."

The other three nodded, agreeing with their companion.

"Well, at least you survived it, but you have been misinformed about the cursed seal, but it's no wonder. After all they wouldn't want their golden boy to leave for greener pastures so they force feed you bullshit to make you stay here." continued Sakon, "And if you stay in this shitty village playing the good little ninja with your pathetic friends, you'll always be as weak as you are now."

The girl, Tayuya, spoke up at that point: "Come with us, to Otogakure, and Orochimaru-sama will give you strength beyond your imagination. He will also increase the power of your cursed seal to a stable, second level, that won't damage your body as much. But remember, for every thing you stand to gain, you'll always lose something else. If you refuse our offer, you'll give up forever a chance to become the strongest ninja our world has ever seen."

Sasuke grimaced inside. Those words sounded really pretty, but they had a truly dangerous hidden sense. "_Strongest ninja our world has ever seen, eh? What a roundabout way to say that Orochimaru will take over my body, even said in a way that she won't be possibly accused of lying! And that part of losing something to gain something else, what a bunch of con artists!_"

"Would you also forget your true goal, Itachi Uchiha, by playing with these leaf fools?" continued Tayuya after seeing the emotions playing in his eyes.

"_Hypocrite Bastards!_" thought Sasuke, gritting his teeth.

"By now you should have realized that this village is nothing but a set of chains restraining you. You must sever those binds and be free from the constraints these peace-loving fools have placed on your growth." said Sakon

Sasuke just tried to get his breath back, after all those gut shots.

"We will be waiting for your decision." continued the girly looking boy. "But we will not wait for long."

All four ninja jumped away in the darkness, leaving a battered Sasuke to catch his breath and mend his injuries, amongst which his wounded pride.

* * *

"This is an even more dangerous gamble than your usual ones, Anko." said Ibiki to the nearby kunoichi. "But this will be the true test for the Uchiha's loyalty." Nearby a full ANBU squad was on stand-by, but the Hokage ordered them to allow the sound ninja to stay a bit more in the village undisturbed, but under constant monitoring. Ibiki himself hand-picked the whole squad, as well, to ensure no Orochimaru plant was in their midst and alert his hit squad before it was time. "You are lucky the Hokage approved it at all. In his place, I would have already attacked them and made them spill Orochimaru's secrets."

"I know, 'Biki-chan. But it's the only sure way of verify if he could be tempted with power. We cannot duplicate the Bastard's cursed seal and I wouldn't allow its placement on an ally in any case, so it has to be an authentic offer. If he fails this test I honestly can't teach the brat anymore or let him sign the Snake contract. If he cannot even resist lame-ass offers just like those, especially as accepting them would also mean giving up his true ambition, he will surely betray the village sooner or later. I will not train a future Orochimaru!"

Ibiki nodded, and allowed his squad to continue tailing the sound ninja, while the two of them would continue monitoring the Uchiha. He had hopes for the boy after his little conversation with him. He just hoped the boy would not let him down...

* * *

Sakon stopped in another hiding place they had previously prepared. He turned to his companions and asked: "So, what was your impression?"

Kidomaru said: "He won't come. He had been too throughly brainwashed by the leaf."

Tayuya nodded: "I agree with the censored bug-boy. That shitstain had already made up his mind and won't come willingly."

Jirobo naturally said: "Tayuya...you shouldn't speak that way..."

But he suddenly stopped and coughed up because Tayuya's flute hit him hard in the gut. "Shut up, lardass!" she said, in a very bad mood.

Jirobo, as soon as he could speak again, said: "I cough agree, too."

Sakon grimaced, and said: "We'll have to implement plan B. Be ready before dawn."

The other three simply nodded and split up.

* * *

Naruto woke up before dawn, refreshed. His clones managed to successfully use Life for the first time last night, reducing their best time to around five and a half minutes and managing to revive a dead bird. Examining it after the jutsu, it was apparently weak from chakra and blood loss, but it was alive. His improved chakra control helped immensely in his training with Life and now he had about a 50 percent chance of success in saving someone if he started the technique immediately after a person's death and had no interruptions while he worked, depending on how fast the recipient's Gates opened after death. Thinking about it, the Lotus techniques were even more self-destructing than he imagined, because depleting the Gates would make the moment of true death approach even faster. He, too, would have the very same problem... if other Uzumaki were still around to revive him, that is! Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending of the viewpoint, his mother told him of a high a-rank White Jutsu named Auto-Life that would protect him (or whoever he used Auto-Life on) by releasing a pre-stored Life Jutsu in the event of the recipient's death. It was, however, an order of magnitude harder than Life to learn and use, and it wouldn't last more than a half-hour before it unraveled by itself. Pity, that.

Piling the double book reports for Shizune-sensei that his 'reading' clones completed during the night, he thoughtlessly grabbed an instant ramen cup, activated its seal and devoured its contents within 30 seconds, closing his eyes in bliss.

-_Naruto-chan, I see you are having a lot of fun with your new seal._- said Kushina, amused.

"Yup!" he said, tossing the empty cup in a storage scroll where a few other empty cups were sealed inside. He would burn them later, when he had a few of them to destroy at once. He still had to find a way to hide or protect his seals but since no one except Iruka-sensei, Ero-sennin and possibly the Hokage knew he was already capable of creating new ones, no one in his right mind would think his trash held anything valuable, but he could not risk it. His anti-paint seal was another matter, because it wasn't as important to him and it had so many obvious weaknesses that it wouldn't stop a rookie genin from disabling it. Probably even most academy students could, as well, but it was just a simple protection against stupid civilian vandals, not ninja.

Revising today's schedule, the original had his usual team meeting with team 7, followed by Archives shift and glaive training with Tenten. He would then leave a clone to teach her seals while he did katas until dinnertime. Akiko instead would spend the morning ordering clones in her gossiping guard self-appointed duty, organize the library study squad and give a final revision to the book summaries. In the afternoon she would report to Shizune-sensei to deliver her 'homework' and probably receive a new task. After that, she would redirect most of the gossiping clones to chakra control training and Life training.

It was time to start his day!

* * *

Danzo looked at his Root aides. The scarred and crippled man snarled, seeing what his agents were reporting. Five of his newest agents in the regular ANBU squads were about to be discovered if the Hokage implemented Ibiki's suggestions. Their backgrounds would not keep up to the kind of scrutiny the Head of the Torture and Interrogation squad would focus on them and while he knew his Root were too well trained and loyal to point him out, Ibiki and the Hokage would know and it would ruin a lot of his preparations.

Oh, yes, he still wanted to be the Hokage, but he had not yet the political pull to overcome Tsunade in the eyes of the daimyo, even if he had the pull to convince a good portion of the Council. The Sannin's name held too much weight with the Fire Nation leader to pass her up for a crippled ex-shinobi, so he had to take her out of the competition before it was time for the Sandaime to retire. The fact that she didn't want to be the Hokage only made his job easier, but the old fool was persuasive and he didn't doubt that in two or three years Tsunade's resistance would crumble and she would accept the position.

Now he would need to find a way to safely dispose of those five agents, and he had the beginnings of a plan. He already contemplated enlisting the help of Orochimaru by doing him a series of small favors, and he could get two pigeons with one stone. He would order those five agents to wear sound forehead protectors and kill the ANBU shadows of the Sound Four, who were currently in the village to kidnap Sasuke, and help them in their mission by providing safe routes, the unconscious Uchiha himself and at least a 12 hours head start on the rescue party. The Hokage would simply think that his wayward pupil activated those 'sleeper agents' to get his hands on the Uchiha while his bodyguards played decoy for the ANBU. No one would ever connect them to Danzo once they were dead, he took a lot of safeguards to ensure that, and they had orders to use poison pills if in danger of capture. They also had to distract Mitarashi and Morino long enough to kidnap the boy, but he didn't want to know what they would do to accomplish it. Morino was an accomplished body language reader, and what he didn't know, he could not even subconsciously betray.

He shivered for a moment thinking back at the plan again and tried to not think at what Itachi would do if he realized Danzo broke his word to him and had a hand in delivering his brother to Orochimaru against his will. It was a sure incentive to not be discovered, ever!

* * *

Sasuke awoke, still a while before true dawn. He had had a bit of trouble getting to sleep yesterday despite his tiredness.

The Sound Four were clearly trying to make him leave the village of his own free will, and had obvious agents within the village security to tail him for so long without being challenged, so he had to make sure to just tell Anko or Kakashi sensei about it. He wanted to make them pay personally, but he would get into trouble if he didn't report the event. He was already skirting punishment for not reporting immediately the security breach he witnessed, as it was.

Gathering his resolve, he armed himself and went to the Forest of Death to find Anko-sensei. As her apprentice even if still unofficially, she was his immediate superior and his first choice for a preliminary report. He was making his way to the training ground when he felt something hit his neck, something he didn't even detect before it reached him. He grabbed it and pulled it away. It was a small needle! He soon felt so dizzy he fell on the ground. "_Poison!_" he thought, trying to frantically reach his pouch with a few generic antitoxins without success. Now he understood why Anko insisted so much on building immunities, it helped to buy time to get the antidotes.

Trying to get at least a glimpse of his attackers, he managed to turn his head a bit. He saw no one, but heard the sounds of a fight and he seemed to vaguely recognize Anko-sensei's voice. He was sure those four freaks were not around, so were they a decoy? Had they been downplaying their stealth skills to let him know they were there? Was another true hit squad hidden from his senses? Were they fighting Anko-sensei who wanted to help him?

His thoughts clouded over as he felt himself yanked from the ground, the shock enough to spin his world with severe vertigo, and despite trying his best to remain aware, the poison completed his work and he lost consciousness...

* * *

"Damn those suicidal squads!" said Anko, trying to track down Sasuke, after those sound guys took him away. Those two men literally fought to the death to delay Ibiki and her from rescuing her apprentice.

"We have been betrayed, Anko, we must proceed with caution. You go inform Hokage-sama, I'll try to recruit a tracker to find out the true path they took." said Ibiki, examining three different trails leading outside the village. All three equally valid to get out of the village with a minimal chance of detection in that particular time frame. It wasn't random at all. Someone knew exactly today's easiest paths out and gave them to the sound ninja. He'll have a lot of work in the following months just to sort this intelligence disaster out!

Anko nodded and shunshined to the Hokage Tower. Ibiki, instead sealed up the bodies of the dead sound ninja and went to the nearby Inuzuka compound, trying to conscript one of their trackers, but he saw their dog kennels in disarray. A green cloud was enveloping the entire area, and in the distance he saw the same thing on the Aburame land. Gritting his teeth, he tried to remember from the personnel data the most proficient trackers outside those two clans, and he immediately thought of Hatake Kakashi. He ran to training ground 7, to the Memorial Stone, where he was sure the elite jonin would be right now. As team leader of the kidnapped chunin he would be surely included in the rescue party, along with Naruto. Probably he would add a few experienced free chunin and maybe another full squad, considering the number and strength of their opposition, but this was the Hokage's job.

Reaching the Monument, he saw his target, and proceeded to give him a brief report of the kidnapping, including the observed capabilities of the Sound Four and what little details he gathered from the other hidden Sound squad. Kakashi immediately deployed his nin-dogs and both of them went to the Tower as well, to report and to wait for the orders from the Hokage.


	36. The pursuit

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 36: The pursuit

by Chronodt

The Sound Four gathered together in their hiding hole, waiting for the contact arranged by their spies in Konoha. They were joined, instead, by a nondescript ninja with a sound forehead protector, obviously fake, since Orochimaru-sama assigned the mission only to their elite group. They didn't attack, however, because the man made the agreed-on hand sign as soon as he was in their eye-sight.

"Why are you wearing that symbol?" said Sakon, more than slightly irritated.

"My Master gave orders to my squad to assist in your mission in exchange of our lives, but we cannot be traced back to Konoha in any way." he said, completely emotionless. "We are to deliver Uchiha Sasuke and these documents to you, as proof of its intentions, together with a missive to your Kage, Orochimaru." He gestured to his side, where the sedated body of the chunin was bound with ninja wire and seals.

Sakon and the others were still unconvinced. "What do you gain from all this?" he asked, suspicious.

"Uchiha Sasuke is a thorn in our Master's plans, but he cannot directly be disposed, because he is too protected in this village." said the fake sound ninja. "Letting you get him is an... acceptable alternative."

"So you are just using us, eh?" said Kidomaru, looking at the others. Sakon was busy checking the documents but was still paying attention.

"That is the nature of ninja" said the fake sound-nin, as if speaking by rote, again without any emotion. He was eerily reminiscent of a puppet.

"The documents are authentic." said Sakon.

"The Uchiha is the true one, as well." said Jirobo, examining the unconscious youth.

"He has been dosed with a powerful sedative, he will remain unconscious for ten hours." said the fake sound ninja. "Our mission now consist in buying you time to leave the Fire Country. In the documents in your hands are the most likely members of the only rescue mission that could be spared at this point to recover the Uchiha due to Master's sabotage in the village. Three of our members will accompany you for two hours, then split up to create a false trail. You will not see any of us again after that."

The Sound Four nodded. Suicide mission were not unknown in Otogakure, even if they were very rare. However, thanks to their contact, they now had a few different safe paths to choose from, and Sakon selected the one most dissimilar to their entry route. It would lengthen their return to Rice country by a few hours, but it would be much safer than their previous choice. Even guarding their backs against those three agents would not be a problem, as long as nobody let their guard down.

Jirobo unsealed the barrel they planned to use to enhance the Uchiha's seal to hide the boy inside. Even if spotted by patrols, unless they knew of the abduction, a carried barrel would be much less suspicious than a carried body. A pity they could not use it for its original purpose: without his willingness to be a part of Otogakure they wouldn't dare to give him the stabilizing medicine, because the mind-control aspects of the cursed seals were enhanced only if he took it of his own free will. Orochimaru-sama once at the village would surely convince the boy, sooner or later.

Lifting the now closed barrel, the Sound Four left their hiding place and followed the selected escape route. The fake sound ninja simply followed them, joined by two others who kept themselves just outside hearing range and all of them silently slipped out of Konoha.

* * *

The Hokage listened with attention to Anko's report, while the ANBU came and went bringing in reports from all over Konoha. All of the famous tracker clans were mostly incapacitated and unable to offer more than minimal help, as well as the ANBU, because they were needed to secure the village itself. All messenger birds were also sick. They would recover, but unfortunately not in time to inform the border patrols to change their routes to intercept the Sound Four. As Ibiki and Kakashi entered the room, the aged leader had a basic idea about the basic composition of a rescue party to send after the kidnappers.

"Kakashi, Take Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Hyuga Neiji and wait at the gate. Your main mission and top priority will be to find and recover Sasuke. Anko, you take Nara Shikamaru and two other chunin or genin who can work well with both of you, and you'll be the support squad. Your main mission will be to assist Kakashi's squad, but you'll have an additional secondary objective to capture at least one of the kidnappers alive. You'll leave within 20 minutes. I will have a backup team behind you, but not before at least 8 hours, possibly an all-jonin team if I can put it together without compromising the village security."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" said Anko and Kakashi together, and they left with a shunshin to gather their teams.

"Ibiki, I want those traitors from you, and I want them as soon as possible. And give those sealed bodies to Tsunade, I want to know exactly who they were."

The scarred Head of the Torture and Interrogation department nodded and left toward the hospital and from there to his office to gather his own squad.

The Hokage looked at the papers crowding his desk, thinking that it would have been nice to be already back in his retirement at that very moment...

* * *

Shikamaru groggily left his house, after receiving several death threats from the crazy special jonin. A short briefing about the situation, and he said: "I want Chouji in the squad. He is the one I work best with. Ino would have been ideal for a capture squad, but she is still too weak against those kind of opponent."

Anko nodded. Even if that boy was only an average genin, based on her observations during the exams, Shikamaru's familiarity with his fighting style would provide an helpful synergy and he was painfully right about the girl. Her family jutsu would have been very helpful, but they could not cover her ass all the time in the mission. "With you and me as short/medium range fighters and with the Akimichi boy as front line meat wall, we need long range support." said Anko, saying her thoughts aloud.

"The other team already provides tracking abilities with Kakashi's dogs and Neiji's byakugan." said Shikamaru, analyzing the current situation. "Shino and Kiba are probably disabled by the distraction, if they even are in the village, and their clans may need them to clean up the mess. Considering Kakashi's team is also lacking long range support, I'd say to recruit Tenten for the mission, thus allowing us to eventually pair her up with Neiji should the need arise to split ourselves up."

Anko nodded. "I approve. I'll go get the girl, you drag here the Akimichi. We'll leave in 10 minutes."

Shikamaru nodded, and left.

* * *

Kakashi observed the six children gathered before him and checked their equipment. Anko was busy requisitioning a few things useful for their mission but be there soon.

"My squad's mission is to recover Sasuke." stated Kakashi, while he waited for both teams to put back their equipment. "Everything else is secondary, including killing or capturing the Sound ninja. Once Sasuke is in our hands, Anko's team will delay eventual re-capture squads while mine will hurry back, using Neiji's byakugan to ensure we won't fall into traps or ambushes on the way. Anko's team mission consists in assisting my squad in the retrieval of Sasuke. They will delay or disable enemies in our way and if they can they will perform the secondary objective, namely capture at least one of the kidnapper. Torture and Interrogation _really_ wants to know how they managed to slip out of the village undetected."

The genin and chunin nodded. Anko arrived in a cloud of smoke and distributed filled storage scrolls. "These contain chakra restraining devices, use them on downed opponents and they will be as tame as kittens afterward, as long as you keep them under surveillance, naturally. They need periodic chakra infusion, a little bit every hour to work at peak efficiency. Our main target is this one." she showed a picture of Sakon. "His name is Sakon. He demonstrated to be in a leadership role, if not the leader of the team itself. He is somehow able to manifest extra arms from anywhere in his body, but the head behind his shoulders make us think he is actually two people fused together in some unknown way." She then showed Kidomaru's picture. "He is Kidomaru, he can secrete some kind of webbing from his mouth that resists even chakra-enhanced blades and as you can see he has six arms. Not much else is known." passing to the next picture, she said. "This one is Jirobo. He is the physically stronger member of the Sound Four, and ANBU reports indicate he is often rebuking the last member of their team for her foul language, but otherwise he doesn't seem to speak up often. The last member is this girl." she showed up her picture. "Her name is Tayuya, she has been seen with a metal flute, so she probably is a genjutsu specialist using music as her vector. She has a true potty mouth that is really fun to listen to and when rebuked by Jirobo she often reacts violently. This is the known opposition, but there may be other sound squads out there, so keep your eyes sharp and don't get butchered!"

Kakashi jumped on the first tree and the others followed. Pakkun, the ninja dog summoned by Kakashi, immediately told them as soon as he found the trail that there were seven smells plus Sasuke's, so there were at least three unknown ninja in the enemy party. While they were traveling, Kakashi updated them on the main strategy and the finer points of pursuit missions, until Pakkun suddenly stopped, a couple hours in the pursuit.

"The smell splits up, Kakashi." said the small dog. "Four smells and Sasuke's go left and three others as well as Sasuke's again go right. In both cases, Sasuke's smell is slightly obscured and I cannot tell the true one."

"Damn!" said Anko, trying to gauge the prints to determine whose tracks belonged to the group who had their target. They were very similar, including the fact that a few of them were clearly heavier and larger, just as Jirobo was. Naruto tried to think if some of his exclusive jutsu could be of any help, but there was no chakra residue (and as such no pyreflyes) to Scan, and none of his summons could track.

After five minutes, Kakashi lifted his forehead protector and examined the area with his sharingan eye and identified the correct track, after noticing small details about the fake trail. He didn't bother telling anyone what he found wrong about the other one but simply pointed to the right path and darted off, in the direction where there were only three smells plus Sasuke's.

"They are about three hours ahead, if they maintain the pace shown in these tracks." said Pakkun, checking the freshness of the trail, "But if they actually know how to slip behind the patrols they may stay ahead of us longer than expected."

"Can we still catch them before they reach the border?" asked Sakura, worried about Sasuke's safety if they could not intercept them before they crossed the border.

"Yes, but barely." was Pakkun's answer.

Naruto contemplated his options, and then he spoke up: "Kakashi-sensei, if I had an extra tracking dog I could send a clone riding Ixion to intercept and delay them. Ixion is a few times faster than our current pace even in this terrain."

Anko spoke up, asking: "Will this reduce your effectiveness?"

Naruto replied: "Only in my ability to summon Guardians until he dispels himself, or for about 2 hours, whatever comes first."

"It's acceptable." said Anko, leaving the final decision to the leader of the mission.

"Do it, but don't let them see you." said Kakashi, "Put traps on their path and try to herd them toward the Valley of the End. It's the longest way from their probable path to Rice country that is still inside our borders, and if your clone confirms their altered path we can cut up to one hour from the chase."

Naruto then observed his team leader summon another nin-dog. He was light brown, with … sunglasses? Damn, Kakashi-sensei summoned a Shino look-alike in dog form! Its name even sounded similar, because he was named Akino! He created the Summoning Glaive and summoned Ixion, to the bewilderment of many of his peers, who only saw Carbuncle before.

Creating a shadow clone to mount the lightning horse, they shot away as soon as the nin-dog jumped on the Guardian, almost leaving a trail of lightning sparks behind. To communicate with the main body, the clone had also been supplied with a small vial of blood to summon a toad and send them vital information.

* * *

Danzo examined the reports his Root sent him with a relieved smile. His plan had been executed perfectly, two of the compromised operatives had been killed and the other three would die delaying the two pursuing squads if the fake trails didn't buy them enough time. With their death, there was no way Itachi would ever know of his involvement in this matter. The only ones to even suspect anything would be Orochimaru, but he had his own reason to fear the rogue Uchiha and was not aware of the true situation between Itachi and Konoha, because only five people knew anything about it: himself, Itachi, the Hokage and his two old teammates, Homura and Koharu. He was aware that Itachi could have told someone as insurance against his sudden death, but it was very unlikely for that someone to be the rogue Snake.

Looking at the village, he was actually troubled by the amount of chaos his plan required to pull off successfully. He would need to keep his head low for a while and let the inevitable investigation die off before he could resume his plan. In the meantime, he would plan and consolidate his position in the Council and before the daimyo.

* * *

Kidomaru and Tayuya jumped on the next tree, while the two false Sound ninja remained behind, to try to intercept and ambush the pursuing party. Apparently their enemies chose the right trail, either by accident or by skill, so their deception was useless now. Dropping the fake barrel which had been filled with a few rocks and a couple of the Uchiha's old clothes, they consulted their map and chose the shortest pest-free interception route to catch up with Sakon and Jirobo. Knowing all patrol routes and the planned path of the other group would allow them to rapidly rejoin with their teammates with no problems.

* * *

Naruto, or at least his clone, and Ixion traveled fast even in the luscious forests of Fire country. Ixion used his own powers to pass in this rough terrain leaving almost no tracks, something the clone wished he could do himself. Akino, the Shino's look-alike kept them on the right track, even looking cool while doing it. Again, the clone wished he could imitate that, but he didn't think that 'Shino's style' sunglasses and aloofness suited his personality.

After an hour they found numerous traps, that Ixion nimbly sidestepped, while disabling as many as they could without slowing down.

The clone said: "They stepped up the trap production from here on, they were probably right in this spot when we stumbled upon the splitting path and chose this one."

The dog nodded, saying: "It's very likely. They smelled... annoyed, or at least two of them did."

"I have no idea how they knew about it, though." murmured the clone.

-_A summon spy, Naruto-sama?_- suggested Ixion and the clone agreed. A very small summon, especially of a class of creatures common in a forest, would be impossible to notice. They naturally could have chosen dozen of other explanations, but that would have been the easiest method.

"Let's go, they are still a good way ahead of us." said the dog, jumping back on Ixion and they resumed the chase with greater caution.

* * *

The rescue teams ran for 2 hours, until Pakkun shouted: "Two ahead of us, two of the decoy squad who went the other way are now right ahead!"

Anko growled and said: "They are surely trying to delay us. Two of those sound ninja fought to the death when they kidnapped the brat and unless they are two of the Sound Four, which I doubt, I'm pretty sure these idiots will do the same. Don't underestimate them, the two I killed were easily low jonin level."

"So will we be forced to kill them? What a drag..." said Shikamaru, managing to convey boredom and tiredness even while traveling at a good cruising speed among the trees.

Kakashi eye-smiled a bit at that (while Sakura shuddered a bit seeing that particular expression) and said: "It's good that you feel so much enthusiasm about it, because it is your team's job to take care of them."

Tenten glared a bit at Shikamaru, but then she realized that if they did a quick job, they would be able to catch up easily after dispatching the delay squad and additionally she could finally go all out after a couple months of ultra-boring d-rank missions!

"Ok, brats!" Anko called up to her squad. "Weapons Girl and I will flush up those two losers with snakes and kunai. Lazy, your job is to stop them and Big Boy will finish the job. Don't freeze up, those guys are serious about killing us and will probably fight until they have breath, so our job is to make them stop from wasting more of our precious air. Do you understand, maggots?"

Three slightly disturbed confirmations later, Anko nodded.

Sakura, in the meantime, started to wonder how could her Sasuke-kun actually _want_ to be the apprentice of such a disturbed kunoichi...

* * *

"There is one enemy ahead, coming our way at top speed!" said Akino, smelling the air. Ixion immediately jumped to the side, leaving the projected path of the enemy ninja, following Kakashi's orders to not be seen. The clone immediately dropped on the ground and started writing a concealment seal to hide themselves and waited. A sound ninja, covered head to toe in black darted in the direction they came from, in the direction Boss was.

-_We must inform the others, Naruto-sama._- Ixion commented, and the clone again agreed. He summoned a toad using the blood in the vial and gave Gamakichi a candy and a small message.

* * *

The first ROOT operative waiting for the arrival of the rescue squad looked at the second. They had long forgotten their own names after the long and hard training they had been subjected to. They were aware that the next step of their mission would cost them their lives, but they were trained to total obedience since a very young age and neither had the slightest hesitation to fulfill those orders.

The enemy was surely aware of their presence and of the ambush, because the mission leader was Hatake Kakashi, an elite jonin and he possessed a few ninja dogs that the sabotage mission operatives could not reach and neutralize. He was the main threat and the two operatives were ready to sacrifice themselves to kill him. In their hands was a secret Iwa stimulant, stolen from a missing nin, that would temporarily enhance their speed, strength and endurance in exchange of a monstrous chakra consumption rate, that would lead to their death within 10 minutes. The drug was called 'last flash' in the black market and was in development in the last war as a last resort to try to counteract the Yellow Flash's ultimate combo. Unfortunately, it didn't work as expected: the speed boost was vastly inferior to the hoped-for level, but the increased strength and stamina were considered sufficient to avoid the 'failure' label into the 'useful under very limited conditions'. Its only practical use was just before a suicide attack against a vastly superior opponent, such as Hatake Kakashi and seven other ninja of unknown strength, assumed to be chunin level or higher. To ensure the highest chances to complete their mission, the two operatives sent to delay Morino and Mitarashi weren't allowed to carry the drug, to surprise the rescue party. Their first target would be the dog, so he couldn't alert his squad of the third member of their squad, hidden in a smell-masking genjutsu just outside detection range, then they would try to reduce or remove the Copy Ninja's ability to evade, in time for the surprise attack. At that point the hidden member would come out and use his specialty, the Katon: Fire Curtain on the clearing to finish them. If Kakashi managed to slip past them, they would still try to kill as many pursuer as they could. There was no reason to follow the elite jonin and waste the 10 minutes they had left in a futile pursuit at that point, and that time would be best spent to eliminate his backup to increase their allies' chances of completing their mission. In fact, the third member of their squad ignored the unseen lone advanced scout that obviously disabled the traps to get the true rescue squad.

Swallowing the deadly stimulant, the three ROOT prepared themselves to their last battle.


	37. The Fake Sound

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 37: The Fake Sound

by Chronodt

Neiji, using his byakugan, was the first to actually see the closest two enemy ninja. It was well over a distance of 200 meters, his range greatly increased due to extensive training after the failed invasion and his defeat at the hands of Uzumaki Naruto. They were barely hiding, and he concluded that they knew that the rescue party was aware of their presence, or at least suspecting it. They probably had some kind of intelligence on the rescue party as well, to reach that conclusion. After the short message that small toad carried back to Uzumaki and his own observation on the tracks they were following the only viable conclusion he could come up with was that they possessed some kind of long range surveillance ability. Even if the actual message spoke of only a single sound ninja backtracking from the group they were following, it was likely that the three unknown additions to the Sound Four reunited in a single unit to try to delay them, even if he only saw two of them, for the moment. The last one may have slowed down of just be farther apart, ready to enter the bout in mid-combat for additional surprise.

Signaling his team leaders about their enemies' number, relative position and distance, they proceeded with the plan. It was only after another few seconds that the suspected third enemy ninja was revealed to his eyes, easily piercing the concealing genjutsu surrounding him. With a few more basic hand signals, he relayed this information to the squad leaders, who acknowledged it. They relayed their final plan using a more advanced sign language that everyone except the Haruno girl and the Akimichi boy understood. As a genin with one and a half year field experience, Tenten and himself were already instructed on Konoha's battle sign language due to the overeagerness of Gai-sensei. Seeing Nara and Uzumaki follow the conversation, even if slowly, told him that it was a part of the chunin protocol instruction they were recently required to attend, but still too new for them to have complete fluency in the complex code. Fortunately the Haruno girl's understanding was unnecessary as she was a member of his squad, the one that would avoid this confrontation at all if possible. The potential problem would be the Akimichi, but he was sure that Nara had him covered. Their parents were in a famous team together and probably knew each other since they were infants and could communicate with each other with just a glance.

Darting in two different directions, the two teams separated just before the average kunai throwing distance, letting his team slip to the side. Tenten and Mitarashi-san immediately started their barrage of thrown weapons to discourage the sound ninja from pursuing his squad, while Nara positioned himself strategically behind the shadow of a tall tree.

Now that the enemies were closer, he noticed something... abnormal in the chakra coils of the sound ninja, and he had no idea what could cause it. His duty, however, was clear...

"Hatake-san." spoke up Neiji, "The enemies' chakra is behaving strangely. It's bleeding from their coils into their muscles and organs without conscious control or direction. I believe their coils are actually degrading themselves before my eyes."

Hatake-san nodded, saying: "It must be some kind of weird drug, probably one with nasty side effects. Don't worry, Anko and her team won't fail."

Neiji nodded and turned his attention to their surroundings, when he noticed the third ninja jumping out of the genjutsu in their direction. Apparently he realized his two companions wouldn't be able to stop his squad from disengaging.

"Incoming single at 5 o'clock." said Neiji, barely above a whisper but carefully modulated so everyone in his squad could hear him.

"Naruto, keep him occupied with three clones until Anko can pin him down." ordered Hatake-san, gesturing at the same time at the small dog to slightly alter their course and get out of the way.

Uzumaki performed his famous jonin-level cloning technique, creating three copies, who hurriedly ran in the direction previously indicated. A sudden light accompanied by a great heat wave from the left side was the telling sign of what Neiji's byakugan already allowed him to see: the enemy ninja performed a high-level fire technique on the clones, destroying them all at the same time, despite the distance between each clone due to their chosen formation.

"They have been destroyed, Kakashi-sensei." said Uzumaki. "He used a wide-area fire technique I never heard of before."

"Nara just managed to catch him with his shadow technique." said Neiji, keeping his byakugan active and his attention focused on the surrounding area. "We can easily proceed forward with no more obstacles."

Hatake-san nodded and ordered to the dog to resume the pursuit pace, with himself and the rest of the squad quickly following his example.

* * *

Anko summoned three medium-sized snakes, ordering them to hide themselves for a bit and started layering a genjutsu on the closest enemy ninja. She found it hard to anchor her chakra to his coils for an unknown reason, but she managed, with a little effort. Unfortunately it didn't 'stick' for long. Whatever drug these assholes took was crude, but effective. Her evaluation on their skill based on their movement told her that they were no better than high-level chunin/low-level jonin in skill, but they had the strength and speed of solid jonin. She actually began thinking it had been a mistake to engage three ninja of that level with just a bunch of kids, however when Lazy and Fatty actually caught and steamrolled the hidden little snake she realized she had severely underestimated her little boys (and a little girl, too). To manage that feat, they used the long shadows created by the enemy's own fire jutsu as the capture medium, using, naturally, the Nara Clan's unique shadow jutsu. She also knew that the 'F-word' was taboo around the Akimichi Clan, but... she just couldn't resist referring to that boy with that nickname at least to herself! She just hoped to never slip up where he could hear, or she would have a berserk Akimichi on her hands.

Now four against two, Anko smirked, with just a hint of relief; their odds now more on equal terms.

Weapons Girl and herself, just as preplanned, were keeping those two losers occupied: the first one was large, bulky and was adept with water techniques, but he used them mainly to cover the ass of his scrawnier counterpart, who apparently fancied himself as a serious close combat fighter or a wrestler, because he constantly tried to get his perverted hands on her. If he wasn't such a dweeb and an enemy she might even have let him, just to allow him to have a little fun with a few of her summoned scaly friends in places a delicate lady such as herself would not even mention...

One poison mist jutsu later and Water Boy retreated from his position behind a rock. She knew that those sound ninja were too good to inhale her special-made poison cloud, but now he no longer had a good cover from where he could shield Mr. Grabby with impunity. Weapons Girl was also keeping him on the move, keeping him away from any more easy to reach hiding places. Seeing Lazy and Fatty preparing a new combo to entrap Water boy, she ordered the three snakes she summoned before to distract the big ninja as well, and she paused a little to get again the attention of Mr. Grabby away from her team with a few kunai. It didn't work. Those two guys were clearly trained to work together and if Fire Boy, the third of their squad, hadn't been caught flat-footed by the Sloth Duo they could have even organized a three-man concerted attack, that would have been hard to counter for a makeshift squad like theirs.

Mr. Grabby reached Weapons Girl before she could stop him, using a sudden burst of speed that she recognized as a sealless Raiton jutsu used to make a single high-movement speed jump in a straight line. While the other kunoichi barely managed to parry his hand-thrust with a pair of kunai crossed before her chest, she couldn't avoid the second Raiton jutsu that Mr. Grabby released, some kind of touch-ranged electrocution jutsu that flew from his hands through her metal weapons and into the kunoichi's arms and chest. Weapons Girl screamed in pain, causing severe muscular spasms, then the electricity reached her diaphragm, stopping her lungs.

"Tenten!" shouted Fatty, stupidly abandoning his attack on Water Boy to try and save her. Stupidly because Anko was nearer and already focused on taking Mr. Grabby's attention away from the kunoichi. Using her Hidden Shadow Snake Hands technique, she summoned a horde of snakes from her sleeves and wrapped up Mr. Grabby, pulling him away from the incapacitated kunoichi before he could damage her too much or, worse, finished her up. As soon as the ninja's hands were separated from Weapons Girl, she fell like a puppet with cut strings, clearly unconscious. Anko could not hold him for long, because her snakes took the remaining energy and were now pretty much barbecued. She herself felt quite a bit of the sting of all that voltage and was truly glad she had a way of pulling Sparky away without using her bare hands, or she probably would be napping on the ground alongside Weapons Girl. That jutsu was dangerous!

Water boy, in the meantime, used the opening Fatty's departure created to retreat behind a rock formation, where he was probably preparing something nasty to surprise them. Lazy could not stop him alone and retreated to a safer place.

Fatty tried and failed to punch Mr. Grabby, who retreated, evading all the rage-fueled blows with ease. Before Fatty could continue that useless attack, Anko yelled at him: "Come here, Big Boy!" Even angry, Fatty recognized the tone and realized that she just yelled an order, so he reluctantly obeyed. With most of the team in one place, Lazy too joined them. Anko summoned up a few more medium-sized snakes to keep momentarily occupied the two enemies and work something out, and chew Fatty up a bit. Anko was in fact fuming, she was too irked by Fatty's behavior, but at the moment she had only the time for a short reprimand: "Akimichi, the next time you leave an engaged enemy you should check if you can actually help! You could have left an enemy free to attack someone else!"

Lazy at that point, probably to keep her from destroying his friend's self confidence, started his analysis: "They work well in concert, the large one is apparently the shielder and the small one is an expert in grappling techniques coupled with specialized but very powerful Raiton jutsu. Fortunately we apparently have already disabled their long range fire support, so we are in a strategically better position. They probably have not yet used the entirety of their skills so we must be careful."

Anko, once she calmed down, checked out Weapons Girl's health, and said: "She is out of the battle and is breathing irregularly. Her heart fortunately is still beating, even if weakly." she rose on her feet, looking at the snakes engaging Sparky, studying his movements. "Big Boy, stay away from the small guy, he is too fast and we cannot afford to lose you, too. Lazy and you will concentrate on keeping the large one too distracted to shield his friend. I will take care of our electric pervert."

The group separated as a shower of kunai shot through the area where they previously stood, courtesy of Water Boy from his hiding spot. Lazy carried Weapons Girl into a safer place, while Fatty would need to contain Water Boy by himself for a bit despite his defensive stance and favorable position against the Akimichi's best jutsu.

Catching Mr. Grabby's attention, they began her favorite game, that is cat and mouse, or snake and rat, or whatever... She simply attacked, hid, set snakes on his trail, threw poisoned kunai and evaluated even more his skill level and reactions, giving an eye to Water Boy's situation as well, once in a while. The Sloth Duo was a pretty good team, once the chunin returned to help his friend, and together they managed to keep occupied a clearly superior opponent in both experience and jutsu knowledge. Between the three of them they managed to keep the two sound ninja separated. That is, until they pulled off their ace from their asses.

Water Boy suddenly stopped using water walls and shields, shot out of his hiding hole and started using high level taijutsu, catching Fatty flat-footed and hitting him heavily, throwing him at a high speed against a tree. Mr. Grabby, meanwhile, used the Raiton: Lightning Dragon jutsu on Anko, that she barely managed to evade. Unfortunately that allowed the two enemy ninja time to regroup. Anko realized that the whole first part of the fight was a ruse, accurately studied beforehand to reverse the flow of the combat at the best possible moment, when their enemy got used to that particular fighting style and made countermeasures. And she fell for it completely! Ibiki would laugh at her for weeks once he heard of it!

"How is Big Boy?" Anko asked.

"He is ok." was Lazy's reply. "He took heavier hits training with his father. It was just the surprise that made it quite a bit worse."

Fatty was, in fact, shakily getting up. The two sound ninja were now performing a long string of handseals.... "CRAP!" she yelled, trying to hastily erect a Doton: Earth Wall jutsu, but a monstrous blast of electrically charged water ripped it apart like it was tissue paper, throwing her on the ground and leaving her a bit shaken, shocked and completely pissed off.

Anko had had enough, and decided to truly get loose and summoned a very large snake, a 'Holy shit, it can swallow a herd of cows in a single bite!' sized snake, one of Manda's sons that she befriended over the years, the largest snake she dared to summon as long as Orochimaru and Manda were both still alive.

"Ok, boys, say hello to Setin. He is truly hungry." she said, palming a few more kunai, but she received no reactions from the sound ninja. What a pity, they didn't play the snake and rat game very well!

Creating an Earth clone to slip away, she observed Lazy crouching down behind a tree in that strange position he used in the chunin exam fight, while Fatty was rigging himself up with ninja wire and kunai, probably to prepare himself to use that spiked fat-ball technique his clan was known for. As soon as her clone loudly ordered the snake to attack, she slipped behind the sound ninja and prepared a few traps. She noticed Lazy looking at her and her work, and was probably already adding the traps she was building in his strategy. Lazy bastard, as soon as the mission was completed she would hunt him down and force him to train with Sasuke for a bit, just to see him work, before returning his carcass to Asuma!

Her clone, Setin and Fatty were now keeping Water Boy and the Electrical Pervert extremely occupied, and she was free to chain up a long handseal sequence. Waiting for the right moment to release the jutsu, to rid the world of their sparky friend as soon as Water Boy was too distracted to stop her, she paced her handseal speed so that she could complete the jutsu in a few instants once she spotted the opening. With a pointed look at Lazy, she noticed he was signaling her with Konoha's battle code what he wanted her to do. She was a little miffed at following the strategy of a 13 years old boy, but she saw him in action and read his personal data, so she conceded. Luckily, he _somehow_ already foresaw that she would conceal herself to launch a powerful ninjutsu attack, and she saw that Fatty, under his instructions, had just forced Water Boy to evade the Spiked Meat Ball Tank jutsu away from his friend, by extending his own shadow in his preferred evasion route. That damn brat already managed to read their movement patterns within a few minutes!

With Water boy too far to help her target, she completed the last few seals of the Katon: Great Fire Dragon jutsu on Sparky, who likewise found his evasion patterns disrupted by Fatty's rolling presence, Lazy's shadow and a couple trees. His only way out was on her traps, and he did so. Sparky found his legs snared in ninja wire while a dozen poison-coated kunai flew in his direction. Most of them even caught him, and unless he had a strong immunity to poisons or some serious medical help he was a goner. With an evil smirk she noticed that he was already breathing hard. Within ten seconds he collapsed on the ground, dying.

Two down, one left.

Setin, with Anko's Earth Clone still laughing atop him, launched himself toward Water Boy. The last sound ninja evaded his lunge and applied a few exploding notes on the snake's skin, but her Earth Clone was quick to tear away the paper bombs, almost removing all of them before he detonated them. The clone was completely destroyed, sacrificing herself and leaving the giant snake singed but otherwise unharmed. Setin was now truly angry, and focused his gaze on Water Boy, preparing another lunge. Unfortunately, the large ninja used that bit of time to get close to Fatty just as he was slowing down his rotation to turn around and managed to get a few good strikes in before Lazy managed to get him away with a few thrown kunai. Anko noticed that Water Boy's strength and speed had significantly increased again. What kind of drug behaved like that?

"He is getting stronger!" cried Fatty, nursing his chest where he probably had a few bruised ribs. Damaging an Akimichi when they were using the meat ball jutsu (or their variants) with just taijutsu wasn't easy. He must have truly reached freakish strength to do so!

Signaling Lazy to order the use of lethal force, since they had the Fire Boy knocked out and that was already one prisoner, she tried again with ninjutsu, using a Doton: Earth Projectile jutsu to make him dance a bit. After all, just as Earth was weaker then Lightning, Water was weak against her Earth jutsu, so he wouldn't be able to use his Water Walls to stop her attacks.

It actually felt good to truly cut loose and despite his strength he was quickly subdued. Three against one are not good odds, and that was without including Setin. You cannot dismiss such a pissed off big snake as an opponent without serious consequences, so they were actually more than four against one. Anko, however, could not allow Setin to eat him due to his willingness to fight to the death. He could decide to let himself blow up if he was swallowed alive and she would rather avoid that. Snakes with a stomachache were a pain in the butt to deal with.

Finally pushing Water Boy in another of her traps, they managed to stop him for a few seconds, enough to use again the shadow capture and steamroll combo. That maneuver resulted in a flattened enemy ninja, a still disgruntled giant snake (because Anko wouldn't allow him to eat the ninja) two relieved boys and a smirking and satisfied kunoichi. The giant snake then disappeared with a giant cloud of smoke, his services no longer necessary.

"Ok, boys, time to gather them up. Lazy, go check on Weapons Girl. Big Boy, bring the Firebug here and I'll tie them up a bit."

Anko unsealed the capture devices and tied them up, checking the one she poisoned first. She realized then that all three enemy ninja had internal bleeding, as well as blood flowing from their eyes and ears. So in the end it was a 'last stand' type of drug, what a pity.

"They are dead." she said, rising to her feet after a few moments. "They were clearly using some kind of suicide drug, possibly a strong stimulant as well because they moved with a skill clearly inferior to their overall strength and speed. They were, however, very well trained in concerted fighting and that switching tactic in the middle was a nice touch. That makes me think a bit because that isn't Orochimaru's style, he prefers either a much subtler misdirection or a blunt straight-on fight with overwhelming force. It _is_ his style to throw away useless underlings, but they were showing a lot of promise and no one of them possessed a cursed mark. It's conflicting with Orochimaru's Modus Operandi because if they took a drug from Orochimaru willingly they were clearly already loyal enough to be 'rewarded' with the seal." She did a quick check to see if they had any medical reason to be sacrificed that way, but found none in her hasty search. That would be a mystery best left alone, for the moment, because they still had a mission to complete.

Lazy, carrying their unconscious teammate, said: "Her breathing is regular again. She will probably awake within a few hours, hopefully still able to move."

"Ok. We leave her here, for the backup squad to pick her up. Big Boy, you carry her supplies, we may need them. Due to these assholes' wonder pills we still have both our mission objectives to complete, so let's go."

The two boys nodded and Fatty took the girl from his friend's arms and placed her under a tree root, while Anko put a few subtle markers to inform the backup squad of their hidden injured member.

"Well, now let's go. We need to make up for the fifteen minutes these losers lost us." Anko said, jumping on the nearest tree, following Kakashi's marks.

* * *

Kidomaru suddenly tensed for a bit, then snorted. "Those three losers barely delayed them." he said to his companion, with disdain in his voice. "The Konoha ninja split up in half. The forward group evaded those losers and the back one fought, but cleaned up the deck in less than 15 minutes. Really pathetic."

"I agree, damn censored censored losers." said Tayuya. It was nice to finally be free from that fatass for a while and be allowed to be completely free with her tongue without any prudes around.

They continued in their path, believing they would reach the other half of the Sound Four within a few minutes. Unfortunately, they were no longer sure of their ability to reach the border unhindered...


	38. Kimimaro's decision

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, and neither is Final Fantasy. I just own my personal copies of the manga/games :)

Dance of the Pyreflyes, Chapter 38: Kimimaro's decision

by Chronodt

Naruto's clone, while riding Ixion, analyzed the memories he received from the three clones Kakashi-sensei ordered the original to create, who were then destroyed by one of the enemy ninja a few seconds later. He was a little worried about the original's White Chakra reserves, now, because even if most of the residual split up chakra returned to the creator after the dispersal of a clone, a good chunk of his chakra had been used to create the clones themselves and he suspected that a fraction of the remainder went to all the clones currently active, to update their memories as well. Creating and then dispersing those three clones had probably put the original's White Chakra full regeneration in his Celestial Gates behind schedule by at least an half-hour.

-_It was worth the lost time, Naruto-sama._- said Ixion, and the clone after a little thought agreed. If that ninja fired that jutsu on the main group, Kakashi's team would have been forced to separate and then engage that fire jutsu user to get away. He wasn't even sure if they actually managed to slip away even with those clones' help or if they had still been forced to help Anko's team.

The clone returned his attention to the Shino look-alike nin-dog, Akino, because his canine companion raised a paw, indicating he wanted to dismount. Ixion stopped immediately, following the clone's mental order.

Akino turned his nose on the ground and said: "They just joined up again. Now all four enemies and the captive are together. We are just a few minutes behind, so we should start veering out of their path and get ahead to prepare our surprises."

The clone nodded, as those were his orders. It was now time to start nudging their path toward that Valley of the End Kakashi spoke of.

The dog returned on Ixion's back while Naruto unsealed a map of the area. Marking their current course and with Akino's pointers about the Sound Four's likely route, they planned the trap layout to give them their personal little corner of hell, as well as convince them it was in their best interest to deviate in direction of his choosing.

Putting the map away and sealing it back in his quick-access vest slots, they resumed their run, this time without any prompting by the dog, as they were no longer trying to follow tracks.

* * *

Tsunade was in her office, filling up paperwork. She never imagined how bureaucracy could bleed all the joy out of her work before being appointed as the Head of the Konoha Hospital. Why did they need so much paper? Most of it was useless! She should put together a commission to cull away all the excessive or redundant paperwork, without compromising security. "_The last time it has been done..._" she though, consulting a large register. The frown on her face increased as she flipped the pages. She spent well over two hours skimming the headlines of the various edicts regarding the hospital paperwork, and she came to a shocking conclusion. No one has _ever_ checked out the current bureaucratic load in the last thirty years!

"How come nobody ever questioned the need of all THAT?" she asked to the empty air pointing out the mountain of paperwork. She also thought about all the security _holes_ such heavy bureaucracy could hide. She would point it out to sensei as soon as the current emergency was over. She was pretty sure he would be actually eager to implement it.

Her introspection was cut short suddenly, as she heard fast running steps approaching from the corridor. She hoped it wasn't a medical emergency.

"Tsunade-sama!" yelled Shizune, opening the door and entering her office in such hurry she didn't even knock. "Lee is no longer in his bed or even in the hospital area and no one saw him since this morning. Most of his medicines are also missing, as well as one of the small sake bottles you forgot in his room yesterday!" she said with an accusing glare.

Tsunade ignored the little barb about her drinking habits after a long day even while he was visiting an underage boy (and forgetting to clean up after herself) and personally left for the Tower. If Shizune came to her, she had probably already looked all over the hospital after conscripting a good deal of the paramedic personnel to help in that task. Considering what his friends and teammates were doing, she had a good idea where the boy was, by now, and her sensei had to be informed before the backup squad left that there was an additional genin to assist and retrieve.

She was also already preparing a scathing lecture for the unlucky junior taijutsu maniac.

* * *

Naruto's squad was still traveling at their pursuit pace, when the small nin-dog, Pakkun, said: "Anko's squad incoming from behind, but she's missing one member, the genin girl."

"_Tenten!_" thoughtNaruto, worried, as it meant that at least one of his precious friends was too injured to continue.... or worse. Maybe he should have left behind a clone even against orders to ensure he could use Life if needed...

-_Don't worry, Naruto-chan, she is probably still alive, I just checked on my side._- said Kushina, trying to calm down her son, who was visibly relieved from that information. He knew that a human soul would leave the body and reach the Farplane within five or six minutes after its death. The sound ninja probably injured Tenten enough that she could no longer continue their mission, but not so much that she was dying or in danger of doing so, or Anko would have sent either Chouji or Shikamaru to bring her back to Konoha to let her have medical help as quickly as possible.

"I see them." reported Neiji, as soon as Anko's squad became visible at the extreme range of his byakugan. One minute later, Anko, Shikamaru and Chouji rejoined the chase.

"What happened, Anko?" asked Kakashi-sensei.

"Those three were very well trained to work together. Lower jonin in skill, under the effect of a 'last stand' drug that put them on a solid jonin level. The fire user that attacked you was out before he could significantly contribute to the battle, though, thanks to the Sloth Duo. Weapons Girl was knocked out by a powerful Raiton jutsu, but we left her hidden beside the battlefield for the backup squad to pick her up because she was just unconscious. Weapons Girl sustained extensive electrical damage so even if she woke up she could no longer help us in this mission. Other than that, we all used up a good chunk of chakra and Big Boy here is a little bruised. Lazy is completely uninjured and I suffered only a few minor scrapes. We already ate a soldier pill each, courtesy of Big Boy."

Kakashi nodded to Naruto, who cast a couple Cure jutsu on Anko and a few more on Chouji. Seeing that, Chouji and Shikamaru looked at the blond boy as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head. Neiji instead just nodded, refraining from saying out loud what he saw with his byakugan. Through his eyes, he saw Naruto opening a bit the first Celestial Gate, and in doing so a good deal of that strange white-colored chakra he saw glimpses of during his match flowed in his system. He then reached with it on the patient's coils and crafted something in their bodies, causing a sudden increase of their self-healing abilities. A long-range healing jutsu, something Neiji never imagined could exist.

"Thank you, Naruto." said Chouji, massaging his now healed ribs once he overcame his surprise. The 'big-boned' boy then opened and ate a pack of chips to further replenish his chakra.

"How did you do that?" asked Shikamaru, now very curious.

"Family jutsu, coupled with the natural healing abilities of my bloodline." answered Naruto. "For the moment this is the only general healing jutsu I know and it was designed to heal injuries up to cracked bones or a few bruises. I also know a jutsu capable of purging most poisons as well as dispelling genjutsu, so if you suspect being under the effects of one of them, you can come to me." Naruto hesitated for a moment, then he added. "If someone is critically injured in this mission, to the point where they are dying, I have also a very powerful healing jutsu, but I will need five uninterrupted minutes of complete concentration to perform it, where I won't be able to defend myself. I won't be able to use clones either and I will probably need to dispel existing ones to gather all the chakra I can." He didn't dare to add that it worked only on recently dead people (or animals); that was an information he wanted to keep quiet to the general public as long as possible. He would probably tell the truth to Kakashi-sensei after the mission, but he was pretty sure he already recognized it as soon as he heard the description. His mother, after all, told him that Kakashi-sensei was one of the few who knew about the specifics of her bloodline because he was his father's student. He would also tell that specific detail to his teammates only when he had mastered that jutsu, it would be better that way, unless Kakashi-sensei ordered him otherwise, naturally.

"So troublesome..." said the lazy boy after being forced to add a few new clues to the mystery that was Uzumaki Naruto since the chunin exams. "Would you have been able to heal Tenten?" he asked.

"No." answered Naruto. "Nerve damage, even just slight electrical overload, is above me for the moment, so if she had been rendered unconscious by a Raiton jutsu I couldn't have done anything for her, except maybe heal the surface burns." answered Naruto.

Kakashi-sensei intervened at that point: "Anko had been briefed on his abilities, even if the five minutes one is new and probably not mastered yet."

Naruto nodded in confirmation, then added: "If I had already mastered that jutsu I would be able to perform it in a few seconds. I can now complete it reliably, but I am still too slow in its crafting."

Shikamaru nodded back, making contingency plans to keep Naruto safe if he was forced to use that jutsu on Chouji or someone else in their group in the middle of a battle.

A few minutes later, Gamakichi appeared again in a puff of smoke.

"Yo, 'Ruto." greeted the small toad.

"What's the message, 'Kichi?" asked Naruto, carrying the small toad on the top of his head while they ran.

"The two enemy groups rejoined about fifteen minutes ago. Your copy also needs another vial of blood, but he has already placed the traps in their path. He is waiting to see if the sound ninja change their path as planned."

Naruto nodded, pulled out another small glass phial with his blood and gave it to the toad to bring it back to the clone.

Kakashi said: "Tell them that we are one hour behind the Sound Four and to warn us immediately if they go for the Valley. If they do, we can take a little shortcut and reach them in half that time."

Gamakichi nodded and disappeared.

* * *

Kimimaro slowly opened his eyes while he was immersed in a medical fluid of some kind. Over his mouth and nose was a strange device that allowed him to breathe. He also felt numerous probes and needles planted all over his body, probably to monitor his life signs.

He heard a couple of voices slightly distorted by the flow of the liquid he was in as well as the machines all around him. He barely understood a few words (or segments of them): "...chimaru-sama........ Sasuke.......within the day....Sound Four will..."

He concentrated a bit more on his sense of hearing and recognized the voices of Orochimaru-sama and Kabuto. How long had he been unconscious? From the pain he felt all over his body, he guessed that Kabuto had not been able to cure him and that meant that he could not offer his own body to Orochimaru-sama as Kimimaro himself wished.

"... they are coming back, they sent a messenger bird a few hours ago. " said Kabuto's voice, as Kimimaro concentrated on recognizing what they were saying. "Apparently their contact arranged for a few safe routes back without pesky patrols to delay them, but they still have a few pursuers on their trail. One of them is almost assuredly Copy Ninja Kakashi, and I'm sure that Naruto-kun is there, as well."

"Interesting, but what worries me is the fact that Sasuke-kun refused to come of his own free will. That is... unsettling. I was sure the boy would have been greatly tempted by my offer." replied Orochimaru-sama. Kimimaro felt ashamed on eavesdropping on his Master, but he knew his time on this world was now very short, and wanted to know if he could do something for Orochimaru-sama before his disease killed him.

"From their planned route back here and the distance between the pursuers and our squad, Sakon foresaw an 80 percent possibility of crossing the border before the pursuing squad from Konoha manages to intercept them, bar any complications. I suggest increasing patrols in the assumed crossing area to avoid any possibility of infiltration." said Kabuto, a bit smugly.

"Yes, I agree. Send three full patrols in the area. Once Sasuke-kun crosses the border he will be mine and will stay so."

Kimimaro heard footsteps leaving the area, and so he let his tired consciousness simply drift back to sleep.

* * *

Ino coughed slightly, despite her makeshift damp cloth mask she wore over her face to block the smoke. Beside her, Kiba wore a much better mask and she looked at that plastic device with envy. A few hours ago, some idiot threw a few hundreds small stinking bombs in the Inuzuka kennels as well as something poisonous in the Aburame compound. If it wasn't for the latter, she would have believed Naruto was behind it all; the stink bomb attack was something he would have loved to do when he was at the Academy, but she could not believe that the blond boy would willingly kill millions of Aburame bugs just for a prank.

Coughing a bit more and promising herself again to personally kill the culprit, she bagged another one of those small smoking pellets, after dousing it with a bucket of water. Hokage-sama called all the free genin to clean-up the Inuzuka Kennel, while the free chunin were issued true gas masks and sent to clean up the poisonous gas in the Aburame Compound.

"Ino, are you all right?" asked Kiba, his voice slightly muffled by the plastic mask covering half of his face. He had a small sack half-full of those damned tiny stink bombs. Akamaru was probably in a safe place, away from this horrible stench that was almost making her throw up.

"No, I'm NOT all right! I'll stink for a WEEK after all this, I'm about to throw up right here and I want to kill whoever did this slowly, with a rusted kunai!" growled Ino, angrily.

Kiba looked a little worried (and also a bit scared) due to her angry retort and said: "Uh.. ok, Ino." then he hurriedly left.

Ino grumbled something under her breath and gathered another stink bomb.

After almost three hours of work, most of the bombs were either out of fuel or collected, so a few genin who knew wind jutsu were able to clean up the air a little. She saw that the Inuzuka clan members were now spraying some kind of foam in the kennels, probably to clean them even more throughly. Ino grimaced when her imagination, working a bit too well, thought about being forced to live in that stench-filled kennels while having a sense of smell thousands of times more sensitive than the human norm, or even more sensitive than that for their dogs, who could not turn off their even keener noses. It was no wonder they had some kind of super-cleaner stuff for these kind of emergences.

"Where are Sakura, Tenten and Chouji?" asked Ino to Kiba, approaching him after looking around for a bit while noticing the lack of her fellow club members. As a chunin, Shikamaru would have been sent to the Aburame compound, instead, so she didn't worry about her other missing teammate.

"They are all away on a mission." said Kiba. "I overheard my uncle saying that all this was a deliberate act of sabotage so that a sound squad could leave the village undisturbed, leaving us unable to track them." Kiba grimaced a little and added: "Unfortunately, it worked too well. Akamaru is sick and will be out of commission for at least a week, as are most of our dogs. The adults are making a great fuss, now, about adding a few more security seals to the area. I say it was damn time! My sister had been harping about that possibility ever since Naruto-baka threw a makeshift stink bomb at me when we were at the Academy, but it would have been too expensive to implement adequate countermeasures back then. Idiots."

"Weren't there any protections?" asked Ino, now intrigued by this new gossip material.

"Yes, but they were absolutely inadequate for an attack of this magnitude. They were designed for a few stink bombs, not a few hundreds! The seals they had as protection worked by dispersing the smoke in a wider area to make the smell tolerable and the smoke useless, but with so many bombs all those seals did was spread the stench even further. I bet even Naruto in his Academy days would have discovered that weakness and used it against us if he had the means to buy that many stink bombs."

Ino laughed a bit, trying to forget the permeating stench still present all around her, or on her skin... or in her clothes.... urgh! "It's funny that you specify 'in his Academy days', Kiba."

Kiba grumbled a bit, then said: "After what he did against Akamaru, Neiji and me can you honestly say he is the same Academy dead last?"

Ino shook her head.

Kiba continued: "After our match, I tried to look up the seals he used to defeat me, but I barely understood them. My sister told me that they were just training seals and that Naruto had been apprenticed to a Seal Master right after that fight, probably because that old guy recognized his talent. It's evident his strengths weren't in fields we were tested on at the Academy."

"Such as seals and tactics?" Asked Ino, with a hint of mischievousness.

"Yeah..." said a grumbling Kiba.

"I have a bit more info on Naruto's Master, he is no less than the Toad Hermit, Jiraya, the best seal master we have in Konoha, but also the greatest pervert ever to inhabit our lands." said Ino, still in her gossip mode.

Kiba's eyes bulged out: "J-Jiraya of the Sannin?"

Ino narrowed her eyes. Could he be one of the readers of _that_ book, even if he was _way_ underage? "What of it?" asked Ino, with just a hint of venom in her voice.

"Uh... my sister always rants about him... and I don't know if she wants to praise him or skin him, because she usually smells very angry mixed with a hint of lust just before she starts complaining."

"Does that usually happens as she returns from the hot springs?" asked Ino, her head whirling from way too much information about Kiba's sister apparent hidden exhibitionism.

Kiba thought about it for a while, then he exclaimed: "You're right, it usually happens right after she returns from there! But...that means...." Kiba apparently connected the dots about the rumors about the peeping tom at the hot springs and 'the greatest pervert ever to inhabit our lands' and became angry.

"Yes, you understood pretty well." she said, a bit relieved that Kiba wasn't one of _his_ readers. "After we finish here, I think it's time we have a little chat with a certain Ero-Sennin, as Naruto calls him."

"Oh, yes, we certainly do!" growled Kiba, throwing angrily another small burned out stink bomb in his full sack.

* * *

The Third Hokage was consulting a map of Konoha when Aburame Shibi, announced by his secretary, entered in his office.

"What is the situation in the Aburame Hives?" asked the aged Hokage, his eyes never leaving the map while he made annotations and placed marks on its surface.

"The poison is now under control, Hokage-sama. We lost fifteen queens, but my clansmen are already selecting a few surviving eggs from those colonies to raise as replacements, so there will be no lasting damage to our breeding program. The poison may have even culled a few of the weakest eggs, granting a possible advantage to the next generation. Unfortunately, by an initial estimate, about 60 percent of our unimplanted bugs have been lost. The projected time to recoup from those losses is about three to four weeks. The losses amongst the implanted colonies, instead, are slight in comparison, barely reaching 10 percent due to the protection granted by our bodies and chakra."

"What's your opinion of the strategy behind this attack?" asked an apparently calm Sarutobi.

"It was a calculated strike to force my Clan to remain locked in our Compound, Hokage-sama. Only our expertise with the hives allowed us to keep the casualties in our colonies to such a low level and we needed every clansmen we had to do it, including even a few of the Academy age children. We are now able to provide a tracker, but the enemies' main goal was probably to cause this delay and ensure no Aburame would be sent in the initial pursuit party. The same could be said for the Inuzuka, but due to the higher projected recovery time they may fear their dogs' abilities even more than ours. If I may suggest, Hokage-sama, if there is an Inuzuka away on a patrol to recall him or her and assign it to the backup squad."

"Inuzuka Hana is on a patrol route on the Sand border and we sent a recall order with the first messenger bird that recovered from whatever they have been dosed with. Who can you spare from the Hives for that mission?"

"My son Shino should be acceptable, Hokage-sama."

"Approved. Send him here in two hours ready for the mission, Hana should have arrived by then."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

The Aburame left the room as quietly as he entered, and the old Hokage turned his full attention to the map, depicting the routes of the Sound Four for the few days they had been under surveillance.

There was no doubt about it, they had internal help, and if his suspects were founded, a few heads would roll soon. He would have to act with caution, though, because if he was right just cutting the head of this betrayal would not be enough to purge away the rot in the Leaf.

It was with a bitter smile that the aged Hokage thought about the reversal of Danzo's favorite motto. Instead of protecting the great tree of the Leaf while hidden inside the soil, when the _roots_ themselves were diseased, they had to be extracted one by one from the ground for the good of the tree. And it would be necessary to get them all at once, else they would heal and continue poisoning the tree.

* * *

Naruto's clone riding Ixion smiled when Akino, the nin-dog, told him that the Sound Four just altered their path in the direction they wanted. He had been forced to exhaust most of his chakra to create about forty clones and build enough traps to discourage the kidnappers from proceeding in their planned route. Ordering one of the clones beside him to disperse himself and relay that information to the Boss, he summoned Gamakichi again and through him the clone sent a note to Ero-sennin, so that the Hokage would receive an update on the current situation of the chase. After that was done, he mentally ordered Ixion to resume their chase, while the other clones would simply run at their own pace. They now had to ensure that the sound ninja _remained_ on that path.

* * *

Kimimaro woke up again. He could hear Kabuto's voice speaking to one of his underlings: "Yes, I just received an update from the capture squad. Apparently they had been forced to deviate from their path due to a staggering amount of lethal traps on their chosen route. They are going to cross from the Valley of the End and they have at least two squads on their heels. There is probably also an off-schedule patrol between them and the border, due to all those unexpected traps. The Sound Four may need reinforcements, but don't stray any farther than the Valley from our borders or you'll draw the attention of all nearby patrols on Konoha's side."

"Yes, Kabuto-sama." said the voice.

Kimimaro heard multiple footsteps leaving his room, but he had already decided. Knowing his death was imminent as well as inevitable, he resolved to do a last service for his master. He would stop Hatake Kakashi, the greatest ninja on Konoha's pursuing party and donate his sharingan eye to Orochimaru-sama as his leaving present. Furthermore, without that legendary ninja, the other members of the rescue party would be easy prey for the Sound Four.

Using his bloodline to break the glass around him, he stepped outside, walking by himself for the first time in weeks and simply ignoring the pain he felt in every cell of his ill body. Gathering his clothes he calmly walked out of Kabuto's lab and left the Sound Village, in the direction of the Valley of the End.


End file.
